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HISTORY OF GREECE, 



THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE ROMAN CONQUEST 

WITH SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS ON 

THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE AND ART 

/ 
By WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D., 

bdhob of the dictionaries op " qreek and roman antiquitxes," " biooeapht 
and mtthoiogt," and " qeographt." 



WITH NOTES, AND A CONTINUATION TO THE PKESENT TIME, 
By C. C. FELTON, LL.D., 

ELIOI PB0FES30R OP OREEK LITERATURE IN HARVARD UNITERB!TT. 




BOSTON: 
BREWER AND TILESTON 

' 131 Washixoton Stuekt. 

L. 



28979 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 

niCKLINQ, SWAN, AND BROWN, 

in the Clerk's OflBce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



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y; '((asv Of co;5e;55>^ 



RIVERSIDE, Cambridge: 

PRINTED BY H. 0. HODGHTON AND COMPANY 



PREFACE 



OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR 



The works of Dr. William Smith, on Classical Biography, 
Antiquities, and Geography, are so well known in the United 
States, that any commendation of them would be superfluous 
in this place. The History of Greece published by him in 
1854 is marked by excellences similar to those of his other 
books, and is, beyond all question, the best summary in our 
language of the ancient history of that country, for the use of 
schools and colleges. 

The editor of the present American republication has care- 
fully revised the text, and corrected a number of misprints 
which escaped the author in the original English edition. In 
one place, a passage of some length is inadvertently repeated 
in nearly identical terms ; the repetition, in this edition, has of 
course been omitted.* In the Chronological Table, the heading 
of the third book is omitted ; that omission has been supplied. 
An attempt has been made to introduce a greater degree of 
uniformity in the spelling of the classical names. The example 
of Grote and other high authorities in English literature is now 
beginning to be followed, and English usage, in this respect, is 
gradually conforming itself to that which has been established 
among the scholars of Germany. Still I have not ventured 
to carry out the principle in all cases, having limited my- 
self generally to those in which an opposite practice has not 
been irrevocably fixed. With regard to the Modern Greek 
names, I have followed the orthography of the Greek rather 
than of any other language. Thus, I have written Tricoupes, 

* Pages 172, 173, and pages 181, 182, of the English work. 



IV PREFACE OP THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 

and not Tricoupi ; Ehegas, and not Rigas ; Colocotrones, and 
not Colocotroni ; and so of many others. 

With regard to the passages from the poets, cited by Dr. 
Smith in his excellent chapters on Greek Literature, I have in 
a few cases substituted other translations. This has been done 
for the purpose of more exactly representing the form of the 
originals. The foot-notes are, for the most part, founded upon 
personal observations in Greece. All the vignettes, maps, and 
wood-cut illustrations of Dr. Smith's work have been retained, 
and a considerable number have been added, besides those pre- 
fixed to the new chapters. One of them, the Gate of Lions at 
Mycenae, has been redrawn, for the sake of representing it in 
its present condition. When I visited Mycenae, the approach 
to the gate had been entirely cleared of the rubbish which for- 
merly blocked it up, and the pavement of the street, with the 
ancient wheel-ruts, was laid open. The drawing in the pres- 
ent edition exhibits it precisely as it now appears. The view 
of the Acropolis in its present state is copied from a drawing 
made by an accomplished English friend, whose society 1 had 
the pleasure of enjoying at Athens. It exhibits exactly the ap- 
pearance of the western end of the Acropolis, since the exca- 
vations made under the superintendence of M. Beule, a mem- 
ber of the French school in Athens, brought to light an ancient 
door at the foot of the marble stairs, and is, I think, in other 
respects, the most faithful representation ever yet published. 
This copy, and all the other new drawings, have been executed 
by the skilful hand of Mr. Ernest Sandoz. 

As the Greek nation has wonderfully survived through the 
disastrous period of the Middle Ages, and their long subjection 
to the oppression of the Turks, I have thought it would add to 
the interest of the volume to complete the story down to the 
present day. The method of accomplishing this object has 
been a-matter of some perplexity. The space is necessarily 
limited, and the time to be included in it embraces many centu- 
ries. A complete narrative would fill several volumes ; a mere 
enumeration of the events in chronological order would be te- 
dious and dry. Instead of following either of these courses, I 
decided to select those events and persons that have most prom- 
inently influenced the course of Hellenic history during the peri- 
ods in question, or that seemed best to illustrate the condition 
and genius of the race. It is hoped that the reader will find 



PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR. ▼ 

that, in proportion to the original work, a tolerably full and 
clear account has been given on all these points. The present 
condition of the Greek people is one of deep interest. In the 
kingdom of Hellas a remarkable progress has been made in let- 
ters and education, during the quarter of a century since the 
close of the terrible war of the Revolution. The Greeks have 
been greatly misrepresented by the hasty judgments of travel- 
lers, and the complicated interests involved in the Eastern war 
now raging have tended to disseminate political prejudices 
against them, both in Europe and America. Yet the war of 
the Revolution proved to an admiring world that a noble spirit 
still animated the breasts of the Greeks, after so many ages of 
suffering and slavery. In patience, in bravery, in public and 
individual devotion to the cause of their country, the Greeks of 
that day bear a favorable comparison with any nation which 
has ever struggled to redeem itself from oppression. The dis- 
tinguished and heroic personages who appeared on the scene 
of action during the long-drawn and bloody drama of the Revo- 
lution prove that the race and the age were fruitful of the 
highest qualities of character. The names of Marcos Botzares, 
Karaiskakes, Diakos, Alexander and Demetrius Ypselantes, and 
numerous other departed warriors and patriots, shine in history 
with an imperishable lustre; while among the living, Alexan- 
der Mavrocordatos, Tricoupes, Kalerges, Psyllas, Pericles Ar- 
gyropoulos, and others equally deserving, though less conspicu- 
ous, exhibit to the world the most conclusive proof that talents 
and integrity, in ample measure, still adorn the land of Pericles 
and Demosthenes. The capacity of the Greeks for political 
affairs and self-government has been demonstrated from the 
first opening of the Revolution. Among the earliest cares of 
those who commenced the struggle, the establishment of a reg- 
ular constitutional administration held the most conspicuous 
place ; and during the whole conflict, though its progress was 
marked at times by civil dissensions, and the overwhelming 
power of the enemy brought the insurgents more than once to 
the brink of destruction, yet the spirit of legality and the forms 
of representative government carried the people through their 
fiery trials. 

After the establishment of a monarchy, the desire for a con- 
stitutional government continued to animate the heart of the 
nation, and in 1843 that desire was fulfilled by the formation 



n PREFACE OP THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 

of a constitution, which was adopted at the beginning of the 
following year. The mode in which the people gained this 
great object of their long-postponed hopes ; the moderation 
which marked their proceedings ; the good feeling they exhib- 
ited towards the king and queen, and the confidence in the peo- 
ple manifested by these august personages ; the proceedings 
at the elections, and the acts of the members of the assembly 
that framed the constitution ; the excellent features of the con- 
stitution itself, — entitle the people and the popular leaders to the 
applause of enlightened lovers of order and liberty everywhere. 

In literature and scholarship the Greeks are fast rising to 
distinction. The private schools established in many places, 
the system of public instruction supported by the government, 
and encouraged by the most liberal private contributions, are 
admirable. The activity of the press supplies the country with 
translations of the best foreign books, and numerous original 
works by the industrious scholars and writers of Hellas ; and 
the names of Asopios, Argyropoulos, Rangabes, Kontogones, 
Philippos Johannis, and Manouses would do honor to any Eu- 
ropean university. The History of the Greek Revolution, now 
nearly completed, by his Excellency Spyridon TricoupeSj the 
Greek Minister at the Court of St. James, in point of style and 
matter compares well with the historical works of the classical 
ages. 

Since the Revolution — to sum up in a few words the progress 
of the Greeks — cities and villages have been rebuilt, commerce 
has widely extended its operations, and the mercantile marine 
has largely increased; a general system of public instruction 
has been established, which places the opportunity of education 
within the reach of every child in Greece, at the public charge. 
Organic legislative bodies are established by the constitution, 
and the laws are ably and impartially administered by the ju- 
diciary; the trial by jury and an able and independent bar 
guard the rights of the citizens against the encroachments of 
power. The freedom of the press is guaranteed by the constitu- 
tion. Surely, a people just emancipated from four centuries of 
enslavement, who have effected all this in a quarter of a cen- 
tury, are entitled to respect, even if their roads are rough, and 
their plains ill cultivated, and the public domain not so wisely 
administered as the friends of Greece might desire. 

I am therefore of opinion, that the interest which attaches 



PREFACE OP THE AMERICAN EDITOR. Vll 

itself to the Hellenic name does not cease at the E-oman con- 
quest. In the existing state of affairs, the Greeks form the sav- 
ing and intellectual element of the Eastern world ; and if ever 
those regions — so richly endowed by nature with the most va- 
ried resources for national prosperity and happiness, and so long 
sunk in wretchedness by the vices of Turkish misrule and the 
pernicious institutions of a society founded on the Moham- 
medan imposture — are to be restored to civilization, it must 
be through the influence of the Hellenic race and the Oriental 
Church, liberalized and purified by the science and letters and 
general intellectual culture of the Western nations. 

The study of Greek literature is, all over the civilized world, 
one of the most powerful agents of liberal education. The po- 
litical institutions of the Ancient Greeks are the most instruc- 
tive subjects of study to the citizens of a free commonwealth. 
But there are peculiar and striking analogies, which make 
these studies especially important to the citizens of the United 
States. Greek literature must for ever be congenial to the po- 
litical tendencies which sway a republican people. The spirit 
which breathes from the historians, orators, and poets of Ancient 
Greece can best be appreciated under constitutional govern- 
ments like those of England and the United States; and the 
struggles for freedom which have marked the modern history 
of Greece meet with the heartiest sympathy among a free peo- 
ple, who, like those of the United States, stand aloof from the 
political entanglements of Europe, which checked the sympa- 
thies naturally to be expected from Christian nations in behalf 
of a Christian nation striking for liberty. The services ren- 
dered by America to Greece in her war of independence are 
not forgotten by a grateful people. The feelings of the Amer- 
ican nation found fit utterance in the admirable papers of Mr. 
Everett, — especially in an article published in the North Amer- 
ican Review for October, 1823, which exhibited the qualities 
of comprehensive and elegant scholarship, w^ith the rarest beau- 
ties of style, and appealed to the Christian sentiment and lit- 
erary sympathies of the country. This was followed by the 
speech of Mr. Webster, delivered in Congress, in January, 1824, 
which, in power of argument and classical finish of language, 
stands on a level with the masterly models handed down from 
the brilliant days of the Athenian republic. These noble efforts 
of scholarship and eloquence were followed up by the most im- 



Vm PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 

portant practical results, chiefly through the agency of Dr. S. G. 
Howe, — a name which future ages will not willingly let die, 
either in Greece or in the United States. Large contributions 
of money were forwarded to the government, and abundant 
supplies of clothing and provisions were shipped at different 
times, by which hundreds of the sufferers were saved from per- 
ishing. These generous movements were well deserved by the 
people for whose benefit they were made, not only on account 
of the illustrious associations with the great ancients, but on 
account of the virtues and calamities of the living race. And 
now the love of constitutional government, the eager desire of 
knowledge, the capacity for letters, politics, and eloquence, the 
industry, frugality, and high spirit, which characterize the in- 
habitants of the Hellenic kingdom, entitle them to respect and 
cordial sympathy. They have a difficult part to perform in the 
conflicts now drenching the East with blood ; and if they com- 
mit errors, they should not be censured on a partial view of their 
position and their political relations. There are two sides to 
every question. But whatever opinion may be formed of par- 
ticular transactions, arising out of the crisis of the moment, all 
well-informed men will agree, that the welfare of the East of 
Europe depends in no small measure on the future development 
of the Hellenic- Christian element in that part of the world. 

In preparing the chapters which I have added to Dr. Smith's 
work, I have consulted, — 1. The Byzantine Historians. 2. Mr. 
Finlay's " Greece under the Romans," " Mediaeval Greece and 
Trebizond," and "Byzantine and Greek Empires," and Gibbon's 
"Decline and Fall." 3. Sir James Emerson Tennent's " His- 
tory of Modern Greece." 4. Gordon and Howe's Histories 
of the Greek Revolution. 5. Zinkeisen's " Geschichte Griechen- 
lands." 6. Pouqueville's " Histoire de la Grece." 7. Professor 
Paparregopoulos, 'laropia rov 'EWtjvckou "Edvov<;. 8. Tricou- 
pes, 'laropca rrj'^ ' EWrjvcKrj^ EiravacTTaaew^;, and Oo aco^ofievoi 
Aoyoi. 9. The ^vvrajfj^a r^? 'EX\aSo<;. 10. The English Par- 
liamentary Papers. 11. Numerous Greek Pamphlets, Discours- 
es, and other Documents collected at Athens. 12. Various 
articles in English, French, and other periodical publications. 

C. C. FELTON. 

Cambridge, January, 1855. 



PREFACE. 



The following work is intended principally for schools. It 
was commenced several years ago, at a time when the Grecian 
histories used in schools were either the superficial and inac- 
curate compilations of Goldsmith and older writers, or the 
meagre abridgments of more recent scholars, in which the facts 
were presented in so brief a manner as to leave hardly any rec- 
ollection of them in the minds of the readers. Since that time, 
one or two school histories of Greece of a superior kind have 
appeared, but they have not been written from the same point of 
view which I had proposed to myself ; and in the best of them 
the history of literature and art, as well as several other subjects 
which seemed to me of importance, have been almost entirely 
omitted. I have therefore seen no reason to abandon my origi- 
nal design, which now requires a few words of explanation. 

My object has been to give the youthful reader as vivid a pic- 
ture of the main facts of Grecian history, and of the leading 
characteristics of the political institutions, literature, and art of 
the people, as could be comprised within the limits of a volume 
of moderate size. With this view, I have omitted entirely, or 
dismissed in a few paragraphs, many circumstances recorded in 
similar works, and have thus gained space for narrating at 
length the more important events, and for bringing out prom- 
inently the characters and lives of the great men of the nation. 
It is only in this way that a school history can be made instruc- 
tive and interesting, since a brief and tedious enumeration of 
every event, whether great or small, important or unimportant, 
confuses the reader, and leaves no permanent impression upon 
b 



PREFACE. 



his memory. Considerable space has been given to the his- 
tory of literature and art, since they form the most dm-able evi- 
dences of a nation's growth in civilization and in social prog- 
ress. A knowledge of these subjects is of far more importance 
to a pupil at the commencement of his classical studies, than 
an acquaintance with every insignificant battle in the Pelopon- 
nesian war, or with the theories of modern scholars respecting 
the early population of Greece ; and as it cannot be expected 
that a school-boy should read special treatises upon Grecian 
literature and art, these subjects find their appropriate place 
in a work like the present. 

It is perhaps hardly necessary to observe, that I have availed 
myself of the researches of the eminent scholars, both in this 
country and in Germany, whose writings have thrown so much 
light upon the history of Greece ; but the obligations I am un- 
der to Mr. Grote require a more particular acknowledgment. It 
is not too much to say, that his work forms as great an epoch in 
the study of the history of Greece, as Niebuhr's has done in the 
study of the history of Rome, and that Mr. Grote's contributions 
to historical science are the most valuable that have been made 
within the present generation. As my own studies have led 
me over the same ground as Mr. Grote, I have carefully weighed 
his opinions and tested his statements by a reference to his 
authorities; and in almost all cases I have been compelled to 
adopt his conclusions, even where they were in opposition to 
generally received opinions and prejudices, as, for instance, in 
his views respecting the legendary history of Greece, the legis- 
lation of Lycurgus, the object of ostracism, the general working 
of the Athenian constitution, and the character of the Sophists. 
Indeed, it will be admitted by the most competent judges, that 
any school history of Greece, which aspires to represent the 
present state of knowledge upon the subject, must necessarily be 
founded to a great extent upon Mr. Grote's history; but I have 
derived such valuable assistance from his researches, that I am 
anxious to express, in the fullest manner, the great obligations 
this work is under to that masterpiece of historical literature. 
In a brief outline of Grecian history, original research is of 
course out of place ; all that can be expected from the writer is 
a clear and accurate account of the most recent results at which 
the best modern scholars have arrived ; and in this respect it is 
hoped that the intelligent reader will not be disappointed Of 



PREFACE. XI 

the many other modern works which I have consulted, it is only 
necessary to refer to Colonel Mure's " Critical History of Greek 
Literature," from which I have derived valuable assistance in 
the chapters of the work devoted to that subject. 

As a general rule, references to ancient and modern works 
are not given, since they are useless to the pupil, and occupy 
valuable space, while the scholar will look for the authorities 
elsewhere. The illustrations, of which the majority have been 
drawn by ray friend, Mr. George Scharf, consist of maps of dif- 
ferent districts, plans of battles and places, views of public 
buildings, works of art and other objects, the representation of 
which renders the descriptions in the history more intelligible 
and interesting to the. reader. 

wm. smith. 

London, November, 1853. 




Greek and Persian Combatants. From the Frieze of the Temple of Nik^ Apteros. 
(See pp. 203, 366.) 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

OUTLINES OF GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 

P 

I 1. The three Peninsulas of Southern Europe. § 2. Position and Boundaries of 
Greece. § 3. Size of the Country. § 4. Name. ^ 5. Northern Greece : Thessaly 
and Epirus. § 6. Central Greece : its Principal Divisions and Mountains. § 7. East- 
ern Half of Central Greece : Doris, Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, Attica, Megaris. § 8. West- 
ern Half of Central Greece: Ozolian Locris, jEtolia, Acarnania. § 9. Peloponnesus: 
Arcadia. § 10. Achaia, Argolis, Laconia, ]\Iessenia, Elis. § 11. The Grecian Isl- 
ands. § 12. Influence of the Physical Geography of Greece upon the Political Des- 
tinies of the People. § 13. Likewise upon their Intellectual Character. § 14. Rivers 
and Chief Productions. § 15. Climate. ...... 



BOOK I. 
THE MYTHICAL AGE. 

CHAPTEE I. 

THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE. 

I 1. Legendary Character of early Grecian History. § 2. Legends of the Greeks 
respecting their Origin. ^ 3. The Hellenes and their Diffusion in Greece. § 4. 
Connection of the Hellenes with the Indo-Enropean Stem. § 5. The Pelasgians. 
§ 6. Foreign Settlers in Greece. § 7. Egyptian Colonies of Cecrops and Danaus. 
§ 8. Phrygian Colony of Pelops. § 9. Phoenician Colony of Cadmus. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE GRECIAN HEROES. 

^ 1. Mythical Character of the Heroic Age. § 2. Hercules. § 3. Theseus. § 4. Minos. 
§ 5. Voyage of the Argonauts. § 6. The Seven against Thebes and the Epigoni. 
§ 7. The Trojan War as related in the Iliad. § 8. Later Additions. § 9. Return 
of the Grecian Heroes from Troy. § 10. Date of tlie Fall of Troy. § 11. Wliether 
the Heroic Legends contain any Historical Facts. § 12. The Homeric Poems present 
a Picture of a Real State of Society. ....... 



10 



16 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

STATE OP SOCIETY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 

§ 1. Political Condition of Greece. — The Kings. ^ 2. the BozilS, or Council of Chiefs. 
§ 3. The Agora, or General Assembly of Freemen. § 4. The Condition of common 
Freemen and Slaves. § 5. State of Social and Moral Feeling. ^ 6. Simplicity of 
Manners. § 7. Advances made in Civilization. § 8. Commerce and the Arts. § 9. 
The Physical Sciences. § 10. The Art of War. . . . . . .24 

CHAPTER IV. 

EETUEN OP THE HERACLEID^ INTO PELOPONNESUS, AND FOUNDATION 
OF THE EARLIEST GREEK COLONIES. 

§ 1. The Mythical Character of the Narrative of these Events. § 2. Migration of the 
Boeotians from Thessaly into Boeotia. § 3. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. 
§ 4. The Legendary Account of this Event. The Invasion. § 5. The Legendary Ac- 
count continued. The Division of Peloponnesus among the Conquerors. § 6. Remarks 
upon the Legendary Account. ^ 7. Foundation of the Greek Colonies in Asia Minor. 
§ 8. The .ffiolic Colonies. § 9. The Ionic Colonies. § 10. The Doric Colonies. § 11. 
Colonization of Crete by the Dorians. § 12. Conclusion of the Mythical Age. . 30 

CHAPTER V. 

THE POEMS OF HOMER. 

§ 1. Importance of the Subject. § 2. Else of Poetry in Greece. Epic Ballads prepara- 
tory to the Epopee. § 3. The Poems of the Epic Cycle, in which the Iliad and the 
Odyssey were included. § 4. Diversity of Opinions respecting the Life and Date of 
Homer. § 5. Iliad and Odyssey recited to Public Companies by the Rhapsodi'sts. § 6. 
A standard Text of the Poems first formed by Peisistratus. § 7. Modern Controversy 
respecting the Origin of the Homeric Poems. Prolegomena of Wolf. § 8. The Iliad 
and the Odyssey were originally not committed to Writing. § 9. They were preserved 
by the Rhapsodists. § 10. They did consist originally of separate Lays, but were com- 
posed by one Poet, as is shown by their Poetical Unity. . . . .88 



BOOKII. 

GROWTH OF THE GRECIAN STATES. 

B. C. 776-500. 

CHAPTER VI. 

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GREEK PEOPLE. 

f 1. Nature of the Subject. § 2. The Chief Ties which bound the Greeks together. 
Community of Blood and of Language. § 3. Community of Religious Rites and Fes- 
tivals. § 4. The Amphictyonic Council. § 5. The Olympic Games. ^ 6. The Py- 
thian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. § 7. The Influence of these Festivals. § 8. 
Influence of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. § 9. Community of Manners and Char- 
acter. § 10. The Independent Sovereignty of each City a settled Maxim in the Greek 
Mind. ........... 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY HISTORY OF PELOPONNESUS AND LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS. 

^ 1. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. Division of the Peloponnesus into the 
Doric States, Ells, Achaia, and Arcadia. § 2. Division of the Doric States in Pelo- 
ponnesus. Argos originally the first Doric State, Sparta second, Messene third. ^ 3. 
Pheidon of Argos. § 4. Legislation of Lycurgus. ^ 5. Life of Lycurgus. § 6. The 
Chief Object of Lycurgus in his Legislation. § 7. Population of Laconia divided into 
'three Classes. Spartans. § 8. Periceci. § 9. Helots. ^ 10. Political Government of 
Sparta. The Kings. The Senate. The Popular Assembly. The Ephors. ^ 11. 
Training and Education of the Spartan Youths and Men. ^ 12. Training of the Spar- 
tan Women. § 13. Division of Landed Property. ^ 14. Other Regulations ascribed to 
Lycurgus. Iron Money. ^ 15. Defensible Position of Sparta. ^ 16. Growth of the 
Spartan Power, a Consequence of the Discipline of Lycurgiis. Couquest of Laconia. 54 

. CHAPTER VIIL 

HISTORY OF SPARTA. — THE MESSENIAN, ARCADIAN, AND ARGIVE WARS. 

i 1. Authorities for the History of the Messenian War. § 2. The First Messenian War, 
B. C. 743 - 724. § 3. The Second Messenian War, b. c. 685 - 668. Aristomeues, the 
Messenian Hero, and Tyrtteus, the Spartan Hero, of this War. § 4. Wars between the 
Spartans and Arcadians. Conquest of the Southern Part of Arcadia by Sparta. War 
between Sparta and Tegea. § 5. Wars between the Spartans and Argives. Battle 
of the Three Hundred Champions to decide the Possession of Cynuria. . . M 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE AGE OP THE DESPOTS. 

§ 1. Abolition of Royalty throughout Greece, except in Sparta. § 2. Establishment of 
the Oligarchical Governments. § 3. Overtlirow of the Oligarchies by the Despots. 

■ Character of the Despots, and Causes of their Fall. ^ 4. Contest between Oligarchy 
and Democracy on the Removal of the Despots. ^ 5. Despots of Sicyon. History of 
Cleisthenes. § 6. Despots of Corinth. History of Cypselus and Periander. § 7. Con- 
flicts of the Oligarchical and Democratical Parties at Megara. Despotism of The- 

The Poet Theognis. . . . . . . . .76 



CHAPTER X. 

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ATHENIANS DOWN TO THE USURPATION OF 

PEISISTRATUS. 

i 1. Early Division of Attica into Twelve Independent States, said to have been unit- 
ed by Theseus. ^ 2. Abolition of Royalty. Life Archons. Decennial Archons. 
Annual Archons. § 3. Twofold Division of the Athenians. (1.) Eupatridse, 
Geomori, Demiurgi. (2.) Four Tribes: Geleontes, Hopletes, jEgieores, Argades. §4. 
Division of the Four Tribes into Trittyes and Naucraria;, and into Phratrise and 
Gene or Gentes. § 5. The Government exclusively in the Hands of the Eu- 
patridse. The Nine Archons and their Functions. The Senate of Areopagus. ^ 6. 
The Legislation of Draco. § 7. Tlife Conspiracy of Cylon. His Failure, and Massacre 
of iiis Partisans by Megacles, the Alcmajonid. Expulsion of the AlcmjEonidiB. § 8, 
Visit of Epimenides to Athens. His Purification of the City. ^ 9. Life of Solon. 
§ 10. State of Attica at tlie time of Solon's Legislation. § 11. Solon elected Archon, 
B. c. 594, with Legislative I'owers. § 12. His Seisachtheia or Disburdening Ordi- 



XVI CONTENTS. 

nance. § 13. His Constitutional Changes. Division of the People into Four Classes 
according to their Property. § 14. Institution of the Senate of Four Hundred. En- 
largement of the Powers of the Areopagus. The Athenian Government continues 
an Oligarchy after the Time of Solon. § 15. The Special Laws of Solon. § 16. The 
Travels of Solon. § 17. Usurpation of Peisistratus. Eeturn and Death of Solon. . 83 

CHAPTER XI. 

HISTORY OP ATHENS FROM THE USURPATION OP PEISISTRATUS TO TjHE 
ESTABLISHMENT OP THE DEMOCRACY BY CLEISTHENES. 

§ 1. Desposition of Peisistratus. His First Expulsion and Eestoration. § 2. His Sec- 
ond Expulsion and Eestoration- § 3. Government of Peisistratus after his Final Ees- 
toration to his Death, b. c. 527. § 4. Government of Hippias and Hipparchus. Con- 
spiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and Assassination of Hipparchus, b. c. 514. 
§ 5. Sole Government of Hippias. His Expulsion by the Alcmffionidfe and the Lace- 
dcemonians, b. c. 510. § 6. Honors paid to Harmodius and Aristogeiton. § 7. Party 
Struggles at Athens between Cleisthenes and Isagoras. Establishment of the Athe- 
nian Democracy. § 8. Eeforms of Cleisthenes. Institution of Ten new Tribes and of 
the Demes. ^ 9. Increase of the Number of the Senate to Five Hundred. § 10. En- 
largement of the Functions and Authority of the Senate and the Ecclesia. § 11. In- 
troduction of the Judicial Functions of the People. Institution of the Ten Strategi or 
Generals. § 12. Ostracism. § 13. First Attempt of the Lacedsemonians to overthrow 
the Athenian Democracy. Invasion of Attica by Cleomenes, followed by his Expul- 
sion with that of Isagoras. § 14. Second Attempt of the Lacedaemonians to overthrow 
the Athenian Democracy. The Lacedsemonians, Thebans, and Chalcidians attack 
Attica. The Lacedsemonians deserted by their Allies, and compelled to retire. Vic- 
tories of the Athenians over the Thebans and Chalcidians, followed by the Planting 
of Four Thousand Athenian Colonists on the Lands of the Chalcidians. § 15. Third 
Attempt of the Lacedaemonians to overthrow the Athenian Democracy, again frus- 
trated by the Eefusal of the AlUes to take a Part in the Enterprise. § 16. Growth 
of Athenian Patriotism, a Consequence of the Eeforms of Cleisthenes. . . 97 

CHAPTER XII. 
HISTORY OP THE GREEK COLONIES. 

^ 1. Connection of the Subject with the General History of Greece. § 2. Origin of the 
Greek Colonies and their Eelation to the Mother Country. ^ 3. Characteristics com- 
mon to most of the Greek Colonies. § 4. The Jilolic, Ionic, and Doric Colonies in Asiai 
Miletus the most important, and the Parent of numerous Colonies. Ephesus. Pho- 
csea. § 5. Colonies in the South of Italy and Sicily. History of Cumse. § 6. Colonies 
in Sicily. Syracuse and Agi-igentum the most important. Phalaris, Despot of Agri- 
gentum. ^ 7. Colonies in Magna Grcecia (the South of Italy). Sybaris and Croton. 
War between these Cities, and the Destruction of Sybaris. § Epizephyrian Locri: 
its Lawgiver, Zaleucus. Ehegium. § 9. Tarentura. . Decline of the Cities in Mag- 
na Grsecia. § 10. Colonies in Gaul and Spain. Massalia. § 11. Colonies in Africa. 
Cyrene. § 12. Colonies in Epeirus, Macedonia, and Thrace. § 13. Importance of a 
Knowledge of the History of the Greek Colonies. ..... 108 

CHAPTER Xin. 

HISTORY OP LITERATURE. 

<j 1. Perfection of the Greeks in Literature. § 2. Greek Epic Poctrj' divided into Two 
Classes, Homeric and Hesiodic. ^ 3. Poems of Hesiod. § 4. Origin of Greek Lyric 
Poetry. § 5. Archilochus. § 6. Simonides of Amorgos. § 7. Tyrtseus and Alcman. 



CONTENTS. XVTl 

§ 8. Arion and Stesichorus. § 9. Alcseus and Sappho. § 10. Anacreon. § il. The 
Seven Sages of Greece. § 12. The Ionic School of Philosophy. Thales, Anaximander, 
and Anaximenes. § 13. The Eleatic School of Philosophy. Xenophanes. ^ 14. The 
Pythagorean School of Philosophy. Life of Pythagoras. Foundation and Suppres- 
sion of his Society in the Cities of Magna Gr^ecia. .... 119 

CHAPTER XIV. 

HISTORY OF ART. 

} 1. Perfection of Grecian Art. § 2. Origin of Architecture. § 3. Cyclopean Walls. 
Treasury of Atreus. § 4. Architecture of Temples. § 5. Three Orders of Architec- 
ture, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. ^ 6. Temples of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, 
of Hera (Juno) at Samos, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Jove at Athens. Remains of 
Temples at Posidonia (Psestum), Selinus, and jEgina. ^ 7. Origin of Sculpture. 
Wooden Images of the Gods. Sculptured Figures on Architectural Monuments. 
Lions over the Gate at Mycense. § 8. Improvements in Sculpture in the Sixth and 
Fifth Centuries b. c. § 9. Extant Specimens of Grecian Sculpture. The Selinuntine, 
.ffiginetan, and Lycian Marbles". § 10. History of Painting. .... 132 



BOOK III. 

THE PERSIAN WARS. 

B. C. 500-478. 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

^ 1. Introduction. § 2. The Assyrian Empire. § 3. The Median Empire. § 4. The 
Babylonian Empire. § 5. The Lydian Monarchy, and its Influence upon the Asiatic 
Greeks. § 6. Conquest of the Asiatic Greeks by Croesus, Kingof Lydia. § 7. Foun- 
dation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus, and Overthrow of the Median Empire by the 
latter. § 8. Conquest of the Lydian Monarchy by Cyrus. § 9. Conquest of the Asi- 
atic Greeks by Harpagus, the General of Cyrus. Death of Cyrus. § 10. Eeigns of 
Cambyses and of the false Smerdis. § 11. History of Polycrates, Despot of Samos. 
§ 12. Accession of Darius, Son of Hystaspes. His Organization of the Persian Em- 
pire. § 13. Invasion of Scythia by Darius. § 14. Subjection of Thrace and Mace- 
donia to the Persian Empire. ........ 142 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE IONIC REVOLT. 

§ 1. Introduction. § 2. Naxian Exiles apply for Aid to Aristagoras. § 3. Expedition 
of Aristagoras and the Persians against Naxos. Its Failure. § 4. Revolt of Miletus 
and the other Greek Cities of Asia. § 5. Aristagoras solicits Assistance from Sparta 
and Athens, which is granted by the latter. ^ 6. Burning of Sardis by the Athenians 
and lonians. ^ 7. Death of Aristagoras and HistiEEus. § 8. Defeat of the Ionian Fleet 
at Lad^. § 9. Capture of Miletus and Termination of the Revolt. . . . 163 

CHAPTER XVIL 

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

( 1. Expedition of Mardonius into Greece. ^ 2. Preparations of Darius for a second 
Invasion of Greece. Heralds sent to the leading Grecian States to demand Earth 



SVlll CONTENTS. 

and Water. § 3. Invasion of Greece by the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes. 
Conquest of the Cyclades and Eretria. § 4. Preparations at Athens to resist the Per- 
sians. History of Miltiades. § 5. Debate among the Ten Athenian Generals. Reso- 
lution to give Battle to the Persians. § 6. Battle of Marathon. § 7. Movements of the 
Persians after the Battle. § 8. Effect of the Battle of Marathon upon the Athenians. 
§ 9. Glory of Miltiades. § 10. His unsuccessful Expedition to Paros. ^ 11. His Trial, 
Condemnation, and Death. . § 12. History of jEgina. § IS. War between Athens and 
.Egina. § 14. Athens becomes a Maritime Power. § 15. Eivalry of Themistocles and 
Aristeides. Ostracism of the latter. , . . . . . . iqq 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE BATTLES OF THERMOPYL.aE AND ARTEMISIUM. 

§ 1. Death of Darius and Accession of Xerxes. § 2. Preparations for the Invasion of 
Greece. § 3. A Bridge thrown across the Hellespont, and a Canal cut through the 
Isthmus of Mount Athos. § 4. Xerxes sets out from Sardis. Order of the March. 
§ 5. Passage of the Hellespont. § 6. Numbering of the Army on the Plain of Doriscus. 
§ 7, Continuation of the March from Doriscus to Mount Olympus. § 8. Preparations 
of the Greeks to resist Xerxes. Congi-ess of the Grecian States at the Isthmus of Cor- 
inth. § 9. Patriotism of the Athenians. Eesolution of the Greeks to defend the Pass 
of Tempe, which is afterwards abandoned. § 10. Description of the Pass of Thermopy- 
lae. § 11. Leonidas sent out with Three Hundred Spartans to defend the Pass of Ther- 
mopylaB. § 12. Attack and Repulse of the Persians at Thermopylae. § 13. A Persian 
Detachment cross the Mountains by a Secret Path in order to fall upon the Greeks in 
the Rear. § 14. Heroic Death of Leonidas and his Comrades. § 15. Monuments erect- 
ed to their Honor. § 16. Proceedings of the Persian and Grecian Fleets. § 17. 
The Persian Fleet overtaken by a Terrible Storm. § 18. The First Battle of Artemi- 
sium. § 19. Second Storm. § 20. Second Battle of Artemisium. Retreat of the Gre- 
cian Fleet to Salamis. ......... I7a 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 

^ 1. Results of the Battle of Thermopylae. § 2. Alarm and Flight of the Athenians. 
§ 3. March of the Persians and Attempt upon Delphi. § 4. Taking of Athens and 
Arrival of the Persian Fleet. § 5. Dissensions and Debates of the Greeks. § 6. Strata- 
gem of Themistocles. Arrival of Aristeides. § 7. Position of the Hostile Fleets. Prep- 
arations for the Combat. ^ 8. Battle of Salamis. ^ 9. Defeat and Flight of Xerxes. 
§ 10. Pursuit of the Greeks. § 11. Homeward March of Xerxes. § 12. The Greeks 
celebrate their Victory. § 13. Carthaginian Expedition to Sicily. Defeat and Death 
of Hamilcar. . . . . . . . . . . 187 

CHAPTER XX. 

BATTLES OF PLAT^A AND MYCALE. 

I 1. Position of the Persian and Greek Fleets. § 2. Preparations of Mardonius for the 
Campaign. § 3. He solicits the Athenians to join him. Faithlessness of the Spartans. 
§ 4. Mardonius occupies Athens. Athenian Embassy to Sparta. March of the Spartan 
Army. § 5. Mardonius retires into Boeotia: followed by the Grecian Army. Skir- 
mishes. § 6. The Greeks descend into the Plain. Manoeuvres of the two Armies. 
§ 7. Alexander, King of Macedon, visits the Grecian Camp. The Greeks resolve to 
change their Ground : their disorderly Retreat. § 8. Battle of Platcea. Defeat of the 
Persians. § 9. Division of the Spoil. § 10. Reduction of Thebes, and Execution of 
the Theban Leaders. § 11. Death of Aristodemus. ^ 12. League of Platcea. Relig- 
ious Ceremonies. § 13. Battle of Blj^cal^ Defeat of the Persians. § 14. Liberation 
of the Greek Islands. § 15. Siege and Capture of Sestos. . . . .208 



CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER XXL 

HISTORY OF LITERATURE. 

) 1. General Characteristics. § 2. Simonides. § 3. Pindar. § 4. Ibycns and Bacchyli- 
des. § 5. Rise of History and of Composition in Prose. § 6. Hecatseus, Ciiaron of 
Lainpsacus, Hellanicus. § 7. Herodotus. § 8. Cliaracter of his Work. Analysis. 
§ 9. Predilection of Herodotus for Athens. ^ 10. Style of his Work. , . . 21S 



BOOK IV. 

THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY AND THE PELOPON- 
NESIAN WAR. 

B. C. 477-404 

CHAPTER XXII. 

FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE PERSIANS TO THE DEATH OF 
THEMISTOCLES. 

§ 1. Further Proceedings against the Persians. § 2. Misconduct and Treason of Pau- 
sanias. § 3. The Maritime Supremacy transferred to the Athenians. § 4. Confed- 
eracy of Delos. § 5. The Combined Fleet under Cimon. ^ 6. Growth of the Athenian 
Power. Plans of Themistocles. § 7. Rebuilding of Athens. The Lacedaemonians 
attempt to prevent its being fortified. § 8. Fortification of Peirseus. § 9. Strife of 
Parties at Athens. Misconduct of Themistocles. § 10. He is ostracized. § 11. Pau- 
sanias convicted of Medisni. § 12. Themistocles implicated in his Guilt. He escapes 
into Asia. § 13. He is magnificently received by Artaxerxes. His Death and Char- 
acter. § 14. Death of Aristeides. ....... 224 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE. FROM THE BATTLE 

OP EURYMEDON TO THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE WITH SPARTA. 

I 1. Cimon Leader of the Aristocratical Party at Athens. § 2. Revolt of Naxos. § 3. 
Battle of Eurymedon. ^4. The Athenians blockade Thasos, and attempt to found 
Colonies in Thrace. § 5. Earthquake at Sparta and Revolt of the Helots. § 6. De- 
cline of Spartan Power. ^ 7. Cimon assists the Spartans to suppress the Revolt, but 
without Success. The Spartans offend the Athenians by dismissing their Troops. 
§ 8. Parties at Athens. Character of Pericles. § 9. Attack upon the Areopagus. 
§ 10. Ostracism of Cimon. § 11. Administration and Foreign Policy of Pericles. 
§ 12. Expedition of the Athenians into Egypt against the Persians. § 13. Hostilities 
with Corinth and ^Egina. Defeat of the Corinthians at Jlegara. § 14. The Long 
Walls of Athens commenced. §15. The Lacedaemonians march into Bceotia. Battle 
of Tanagi-a. § 16. Recall of Cimon. § 17. Battle of CEnophyta, and Conquest of 
BcEotia. Conquest of jEgina. § 18. The Five Years' Truce. Expedition of Cimon 
to Cyprus. His Death. § 19. Conclusion of the War with Persia. § 20. The Athe- 
nian Power at its Height. § 21. Decline of the Athenian Power. Revolution in 
Boeotia. Other Athenian Reverses. Livasion of Attica by the Lacedsemonians 
under Pleistoanax. § 22. Pericles recovers Euboea. Thirty Years' Truce with 
Sparta. . 288 



XX. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

FROM THE THIRTY TEARS' TRUCE TO THE WAR BETWEEN CORINTH 

AND COROYRA. 

§ 1. State of Parties at Athens. Thucydides. § 2. Opposite Political Views. § 3. 
Ostracism of Tliucydides. Administration of, Pericles. He adorns Athens. His 
Foreign Policy. § 4. Athenian Colonization. Cleruchiee. Thurii and Amphipolis. 
§ 5. Nature of the Athenian Maritime Empire. Amount of Tribute. Oppressions. 
§ 6. Revolt of Samos. Reduction of the Island by Pericles. .... 248 

CHAPTER XXV. 

CAUSES OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

§ 1. Quarrel between Corinth and Corcyra. ^ 2. Corcyreean Embassy to Athens. 
Decision of the Athenians. § 3. They send a Fleet to Corcyra. Naval Jlngagements. 
Defeat of the Corinthians. ^4. Revolt of Potidcea. §5. Congress of the Peloponne 
sian Allies at Sparta. The Spartans decide for War. ^ 6. Second Congress. The 
Allies resolve upon War. § 7. The Lacedseraonians require the Athenians to expel 
Pericles. § 8. Attacks upon Pericles, Aspasia, and Anaxagoras. Imprisonment and 
Death of Pheidias. § 9. Further Requisitions of the Lacedaemonians. Rejected by 
the Athenians. § 10. The Thebans surprise Platsea. § 11. The Athenians prepare 
for War. Portents. § 12. Forces of the Lacedasmonians and Athenians. § 13. The 
Peloponnesian Army assemble at the Isthmus of Corinth. .... 256 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR TO 

THE CAPTURE AND DESTRUCTION OF PLAT^A. 

\ 1. The Peloponnesians invade Attica. § 2. Athenian naval Expeditions to Pelopon- 
nesus and Locris. § 3. The Athenians invade the Megarid. ^ 4. Second Invasion 
of Attica. Plague at Athens. ^ 5. Unpopularity of Pericles. He is accused of Mal- 
versation. § 6. His domestic Jlisfortunes. Death. Character. § 7. The Lacede- 
monians ravage Attica. Their naval Operations. § 8. SuiTender of Potidasa. 
§ 9. The Lacedsemonians besiege Platsea. ^ 10. Part of the Garrison escape. 
§ 11. Surrender of the town. Trial and Execution cf the Garrison. . . . 266 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. FROM THE SIEGE OF PLAT^A TO 

THE SEDITION AT CORCYRA. 

4 1. General Character of the War. § 2. Military and Naval Operations of the Third 
Year. Attempt of Peloponnesians to svirprise Peirjeus. § 3. Fourth Year. Revolt 
ofMytilen^. § 4. Fifth Year. Surrender of Mytiien^. § 5. Debates of the Athe- 
nian Assembly respecting the Mytilenceans. Cleon and the Athenian Demagogues. 
§ 6. Bloody Decree against the Mytilenseans. § 7. Second Debate. Reversal of the 
Decree. Lesbos colonized by Athenians. § 8. Civil Dissensions at Corcyra. § 9. 
Picture of the Times by Thucydides. ....... 277 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. FROM THE SEDITION AT COR- 
CYRA TO THE PEACE OF NICIAS. 

4 1. Sixth Year of the War. Return of the Plague. Purification of Delos. § 2. Sev- 
enth Yea,r. Fortification of Pylos. § 3. Attempts of the Lacedaemonians to recover 



CONTENTS. XXI 

Pylos. § 4. Arrival and Victory of JJie Athenian Fleet. Blockade of Sphacteria. 
§ 5. The Lacedfemonians sue for Peace at Athens. Extravagant Demands of Cleon. 
§ 6. Renewal of Hostilities. § 7. Debates in the Assembly. Cleon elected General. 
§ 8. Capture of Sphacteria. ^ 9. Advantages of the Victory. § 10. Proceedings at 
Corcyra. Slaughter of the Oligarchs. §11. Eighth Year of the War. Capture of 
Cythera. § 12. Invasion of the Megarid and Boeotia by the Athenians. Capture of 
Nisaea, the Port of Megara. Defeat of the Athenians at the Battle of Delium. § 13 
Brasidas in Thrace. Takes Amphipolis. Banishment of Thucydides. § 14. Ninth 
Year of the War. A Truce between Sparta and Athens. The War continued ia 
Thrace §15. Tenth Year of the War. Cleon proceeds to Amphipolis. His Defeat 
and Death. Death of Brasidas. § 16. Eleventh Year of the War. Fifty Years' 
Peace between Athens and Sparta. . . . . . . . 28V 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

PELOPONNESIAN "WAR CONTINUED. FROM THE PEACE OP NICIAS TO 
THE EXPEDITION OF THE ATHENIANS TO SICILY. 

\ 1. League of Argos, Corinth, Elea, Mantinea, and Chalcidic^. § 2. Transactions be- 
tween Sparta and Athens. § 3. Policy and Character of Alcibiades. § 4. He advo- 
cates a League with Argos. Resorts to a Stratagem to procure it. § 5. Alcibiades 
Victor at Olympia. His Magnificence. § 6. He proceeds to Peloponnesus. § 7. Pro- 
ceedings of the Lacedaemonians. Battle of Mantinea. § 8. Revolutions at Argos. 
A Democracy established. § 9. Conquest of Melos by the Athenians. § 10. Inter- 
vention of the Athenians in Sicily. § 11. Embassy of the Egest^ans. They de- 
ceive the Athenians respecting their Wealth. § 12. The Athenians resolve on au 
Expedition to Sicily. § 13. Preparations at Athens. Popular Delusion. § 14. Muti- 
lation of the Hermae. Accusation of Alcibiades. § 15. Departure of the Athenian 
Fleet for Sicily 801 

CHAPTER XXX. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION. 

1 1. Armament mustered at Corcyra. § 2. Its Reception in Italy. Proceedings at 
Syracuse. § 3. Plans of the Athenian Generals. § 4. The Advice of Alcibiades 
adopted. He gains over Naxos and Catana. § 5. Proceedings at Athens respecting 
the Mutilation of the Hermae, and the Profanation of the Mysteries. § 6. Alcibiades 
accused, and ordered to return to Athens. § 7. Proceedings of Nicias in Sicily. 
§ 8. Preparations of the Sicilians for Defence. § 9. Nicias lays Siege to Syra- 
cuse. § 10. He seizes Epipote and constructs a Fort at Syk^. Attempt of the 
Syracusans against it. §11. Arrival of the Spartan General Gylippus. Change in 
the Athenian Prospects. §12. Invasion of Attica by the Lacedfemonians. They 
fortify Deceleia. § 13. The Syracusans defeat the Athenians at Sea. § 14. Demos- 
thenes and Eurymedon arrive in Sicily with Reinforcements. Reverses. The Athe- 
nians resolve to retreat. § 15. Naval Engagement in the Great Harbor. Victory 
of the Syracusans. § 16. Its Effects. Disastrous Retreat of the Athenians. Sur- 
render of Demosthenes. § 17. Surrender of Nicias. Treatment of the Prisoners. 
Death of Nicias and Demosthenes. § 18. Their Chai-acters. . . . 311 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

FROM THE END OP THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION TO THE OVERTHROW 
OF THE FOUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS. 

J 1. Consternation and Hardships at Athens. § 2. Measures for Defence. § 3. Revolt 
of Chios, Erythras, and Clazomense. § 4. Spread of the Revolt. Defection of Teos, 



SfXll CONTENTS. 

Lesbos, and Miletus. Revohition at Samos, which becomes the Head-quarters of 
the Athenian Fleet. § 5. Recovery of Lesbos by the Athenians. Dissatisfaction of 
the Lacedffimonians with Tissaphernes. § 6. Schemes of Alcibiades. § 7. He pro- 
poses a League between the Athenians and Persians, and the Establishment of, an 
Oligarchy at Athens. § 8. Agitation for an Oligarchy at Athens. § 9. Conference 
of Peisander with Alcibiades. Artifices of the Latter. Fresh Treaty between Tissa- 
phernes and the Lacedsemonians. § 10. Progress of the Oligarchical Conspiracy at 
Athens and Samos. § 11. Establishment of the Four Hundred. § 12. Their Pro- 
ceedings. § 13. Proceedings at Samos. Alcibiades joins the Democracy there. 
§ 14. The Athenian Envoys at Samos. § 15. Dissensions among t]ie Four Hundred. 
They negotiate with Sparta. ^ 16. Counter Revolution at Athens. Defeat of the 
Athenian Fleet and Capture of Euboea by the Lacedsemonians. § 17. The Four 
Hundred deposed and Democracy re-established at Athens. .... 324 

CHAPTEE XXXII. 

FROM THE FALL OF THE FOUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS TO THE BATTLE 
OF ^GOSPOTAMI. 

^ 1. State of the Belligerents. § 2. Defeat of the Peloponnesians at Cynossema. ^ 3. 
Capture of Cyzicus by the Athenians, and Second Defeat of the Peloponnesians at 
Abydus. § 4. AiTest of Alcibiades by Tissaphernes, and his subsequent Escape. 
Signal Defeat of the Peloponnesians at Cyzicus. § 5. The Athenians Mastei-s of the 
Bosporus. The Lacedsemonians propose a Peace, which is rejected. § 6. Phama- 
bazus assists the Lacedsemonians. § 7. Capture of Chalcedon and Byzantium by 
the Athenians. § 8. Return of Alcibiades to Athens. § 9. He escorts the Sacred 
Procession to Eleusis. § 10. Cyrus comes down to the Coast of Asia. Lysander 
appointed Commander of the Peloponnesian Fleet. § 11. Interview between Cyrus 
and Lysander. § 12. Alcibiades at Samos. Defeat of Antiochus at Notium. § 13. 
Alcibiades is dismissed. ^ 14. Lysander superseded by Callicratidas. Energetic 
Measures of the Latter. § 15. Defeat of Conon at Mytilene, and Investment of that 
Town by Callicratidas. § 16. Excitement at Athens, and Equipment of a large 
Fleet. § 17. Battle of Arginusse. Defeat and Death of Callicratidas. § 18. Arraign- 
ment and Condemnation of the Athenian Generals. § 19. Reappointment of hj- 
eander s^B Navarchm. § 20. Siege of Lampsacus, and Battle of Jilgospotami. . .834 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

PROM THE BATTLE OF ^GOSPOTAMI TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE 
THIRTY TYRANTS AND THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY AT 
ATHENS. 

(j 1. Alarm at Athens. § 2. Proceedings of Lysander. Capture of the Athenian De- 
pendencies. § 3. Measures of the Athenians. Athens invested. § 4. Embassy of 
Theramenes. Conditions of Capitulation. § 5. Lysander takes Possession of 
Athens. Destruction of the Long Walls, &c. § 6. Return of the Oligarchical Exiles. 
Establishment of the Thirty. § 7. Surrender of Samos and Triumph of Lysander. 
^ 8. Proceedings of the Thirty at Athens. § 9. Opposition of Theramenes. § 10. 
Proscriptions. Death of Theramenes. § 11. Suppression of Intellectual Culture. 
Socrates. § 12. Death of Alcibiades. § 13. Jealousy of the Grecian States to- 
wards Sparta and Lysander. § 14. Thrasybulus at Phyl^. § 15. Seizure and Massa- 
cre of the Eleusinians. § 16. Thrasybulus occupies Peirseus. Death of Critias. § 17. 
Deposition of the Thirty, and Establishment of the Ten. Return of Lysander to 
Athens, and Arrival of Pausanias. § 18. Peace with Thrasybulus, and Evacuation 
of Attica by the Peloponnesians. § 19. Restoration of the Democracy. ^ 20. Archon- 
sliip of Euclides. Reduction of Eleusis. ...... 346 



CONTENTS. X^Ul 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

IlTHENS, and ATHENIAN AND GRECIAN ART DURING THE PERIOD OF 

HER EMPIRE. 

I 1. Situation of Athens. § 2. Origin and Progress of tlie Ancient City. ^ 3. Extent 
of the New City. Peirteus and the Ports. § 4. General Appearance of Athens. Popu- 
lation. § 5. Periods and General Character of Attic Art. § 6. Sculptors of the First 
Period. Ageladas, Onatas, and others. § 7. Second Period. Plieidias. § 8. Poly- 
cletus and Myron. § 9. Painting. Polygnotus. § 10. Apollodorus, Zeuxis, and Par- 
rhasius. § 11. Architecture. Monuments of the Age of Cimon. The Temple of Nik^ 
Apteros, the Theseum, and the Poecil^ Stoa. § 12. The Acropolis and its Monuments. 
The Propylfea. § 13. The Parthenon. 4 1^:. Statues of Athena. § 15. The Erech- 
theum. § 16. Monuments in the Asty. The Dionysiac Theatre. The Odeum of 
Pericles. The Areopagus. The Pnyx. The Agora and Cerameicus. § 17. Monu- 
ments out of Attica. The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. § 18. The Temple of Apollo 
near Phigalia. .......... 356 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

HISTORY OF ATHENIAN LITERATURE DOWN TO THE END OP THE 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

§ 1. Characteristics of the early Literature of Athens. § 2. Origin of the Drama. § 3. 
Introduction of the Drama at Athens. Susarion, Thespis, Phrynichus, Pratinas. § 4. 
iEschylus. § 5. Sophocles. § 6. Euiipides. § 7. Athenian Comedy. Cratinus, Eu- 
polis, Aristophanes. § 8. Prose-writers of the Period. Thucydides. § 9. Xenophon. 
4 10. Athenian Education. § 11. Khetors and Sophists. § 12, Life of Socrates. 
§ 13. How he differed from the Sophists. § 14. Enmity against him. § 15. His Im- 
peachment, Trial, and Death. ........ 375 



BOOK V. 
THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES. 

B. C. 403 - 371. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE EXPEDITION OP THE GREEKS UNDER CYRUS, AND RETREAT OP 
THE TEN THOUSAND. 

I 1. Causes of the Expedition. § 2. Cyrus engages an Army of Greek Mercenaries. 
Their Character. ^ 8. March to Tarsus. § 4. Discontent of the Greeks. March to 
Myriandrus. ^ 5. Passage of the Euphrates, and March through the Desert. § 6. 
Battle of Cunaxa, and Death of Cyrus. § 7. Dismay of the Greeks. Preparations 
for Eetreat. § 8. Retreat of the Army to the Greater Zab. Seizure of the Generals. 
§ 9. Election of Xenophon and others as Generals. § 10. March from the Zab to tlie Con- 
fines of the Carduchi. March across the Mountains of the Carduchi. § 11. Progress 
through Armenia. § 12. March through the Countrj' of the Taochi, Clialybes, Scy- 
thini, Macro)ies, and Colchi to Trapezus on the Euxine. ^ 13. March along the Coast 
of the Euxine to Chrysopolis. Passage to Byzantium. ^ 14. Proceedings at By- 
zantium. § 15. The Greeks enter the Service of Seuthes. § 16. Arc engaged by the 
Lacedaemonians. Last Exploits of the Armj^, and Retirement of Xenop!;on. . . 39S 



XXIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXX Vn. 

PROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SPABTAN EMPIRE TO THE BATTLB 

OP CNIDOS. 

i 1. Invasion and Eeduction of Elis by King Agis. § 2. Ambitious Projects of Lysander. 
§ 3. He procures the Throne for Agesilaus. § 4. Character of Agesilaus. § 5. Nature 
of the Spartan Empire. § 6. Affairs of Asia Minor. § 7. Agesilaus proceeds thither. 
§ 8. Mortifies Lysander. § 9. Campaigns of Agesilaus against Tissaphernes and 
Pharnabazus. § 10. Execution of Tissaphernes. § 11. Proceedings of Conon. Ehodes 
revolts from Sparta. § 12. Agesilaus ravages the Satrapy of Pharnabazus. Interview 
between them. § 13. Eecall of Agesilaus. § 14. Battle of Cnidos. . . . 407 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE CORINTHIAN WAR. — PROM THE BATTLE OP CNIDOS TO THE PEACE 
OP ANTALCIDAS. 

§ 1. Mission of Timocrates to the Grecian Cities. § 2. Hostilities between Sparta and 
Thebes. § 3. The Athenians join the Thebans. Defeat and Death of Lysander. Ee- 
treat of Pausanias. ^ 4. League against Sparta. Battle of Corinth. § 5. Homeward 
March of Agesilaus. § 6. Battle of Coronea. § 7. Loss of the Spartan Maritime Em- 
pire. § 8. Conon rebuilds the Walls of Athens. §■ 9. Civil Dissensions at Corinth. 
§ 10. Campaign of Agesilaus in the Corinthian Territory. § 11. New System of Tac- 
tics introduced by Iphicrates. Destruction of a Spartan Mora by his light-armed 
Troops. § 12. Negotiations of Antalcidas with the Persians. Death of Conon. De- 
feat and Death of Thimbron. \ 13. Maritime War on the Coast of Asia. Eevolt of 
Ehodes. Thrasybulus appointed Athenian Commander. His Death at Aspendus. 
Anaxibius defeated by Iphicrates at the Hellespont. § 14. War between Athens and 
.ffigina. Teleutias surprises the Peirseus. § 15. Peace of Antalcidas. § 16. Its Char- 
acter. ........... 415 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

FROM THE PEACE OP ANTALCIDAS TO THE PEACE OP CALLIAS. 

§ 1. Aggressions of Sparta in Boeotia. Eebuilding of Platsea. § 2. Eeduction of Mau- 
tinea. § 3. Olynthian Confederation. Sparta interferes. § 4. Seizure of the Cad- 
mea at Thebes by the Laoedsemonians. § 5. Eeduction of Olynthus. § 6. Unpop- 
ularity of Spai'ta. § 7. Eevolution at Thebes. § 8. The Laoedsemonians expelled 
from the Cadmea. § 9. Their Expeditions against Thebes. Alai-m of the Atheni- 
ans, who ally themselves with Thebes. § 10. Eeorganization of the Athenian Confed- 
eration. § 11. Preparations for War. The Theban " Sacred Band." § 12. Character 
of Epameinondas. § 18. Spartan Invasions of Boeotia. § 14. Maritime AflFairs. Bat- 
tle of Naxos. Success of Timotheus. § 15. Progress of the Theban Arms. § 16. The 
Athenians form a Peace with Sparta, which is immediately broken. Proceedings at 
Corcyra. § 17, The Lacedeemonians solicit Persian Aid. § 18. Congress at Sparta 
to treat of Peace. The Thebans are excluded from it. .... 427 

CHAPTER XL. 
THE SUPREMACY OP THEBES. 

I 1. Invasion of Bceotia by Cleombrotus. § 2. Battle of Leuctra. § 3. Its Effect 
throughout Greece. § 4. Jason of Pherse joins the Thebans. § 5. Progress of Thebes. 
\ 6. Assassination of Jason. § 7. Establishment of the Arcadian League. § 8 First 



CONTENTS. XXV 

Invasion of Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. Alarm at Sparta. Vigorous Measures 
of Agesilaus. § 9. Epameinondas founds Megalopolis, and restores the Messenians. 
§ 10. Alliance between Athens and Spai-ta. Second Invasion of Peloponnesus by 
Epameinondas. § 11. Invasion of Laconia by the Arcadians. § 12. Expedition of Pe- 
lopidas into Thessaly. The " Tearless Battle " between the Arcadians and Lacedae- 
monians. § 13. Third Invasion of Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. § 14. Mission of 
Pelopidas to the Court of Susa. § 15. Seizure of Pelopidas by Alexander. His Re- 
lease. § 16. The Athenians acquire Oropus. Alliance between Athens and Arcadia. 
§ 17. Attempt of the Athenians to seize Corinth, followed by an Alliance between the 
Corinthians and Thebans. § 18. Success of the Athenians at Sea. A Theban Fleet 
commanded by Epameinondas. § 19. Death of Pelopidas. § 2. Wars between Elis 
and Arcadia. Battle at Oljaupia during the Festival. § 21. Dissensions among the 
Arcadians. § 22. Fourth Invasion of Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. Attempts upon 
Sparta and Mantinea. § 23. Battle of Mantinea, and Death of Epameinondas. § 24. 
Death of AgesUaus. . . . . . . . . . 439 



CHAPTER XLI. 

HISTORY OF THE SICILIAN GREEKS FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
ATHENIAN ARMAMENT TO THE DEATH OF TIMOLEON. 

f 1. Revolutions at Syracuse. Dionysius the Elder seizes the Despotism. § 2. His Suc- 
cesses. § 3. His Poetical Compositions. Plato visits Syracuse. § 4. Death of Diony- 
sius. His Character. Story of Damocles. § 5. Accession of the Younger Dionysius. 
Second Visit of Plato. Banishment of Dion. Third Visit of Plato. § 6. Dion expels 
Dionysius, and becomes Master of Syracuse. § 7. Assassination of Dion. ^ 8. Revo- 
lutions at Syracuse. The Syracusans invoke the Aid of Corinth. § 9. Character of 
Timoleon. § 10. His Successes. Surrender of Dionysius and Conquest of Syracuse. 
4 11. Moderation of Timoleon. He remodels the Constitution. § 12. Defeats the Car- 
thaginians at the Crimesus. \ 13. Deposes the SicUian Despots. § 14. Retires into 
a Private Station. His great Popularity and Death. .... 455 



BOOK VI. 
THE MACEDONIAN SUPREIVIACY. 

B.C. 359-146. 

CHAPTER XLn. 

FROM THE ACCESSION OP PHILIP TO THE END OF THE SACRED WAR. 

^ 1. State of Greece. § 2. Description of Macedonia. § 3. Kings of Macedon. §i 4. 
Character of Philip. § 5. He subdues the Pseonians and .Illyrians. § 6. His Mili- 
tary Di.'^cipline. § 7. Capture of Amphipolis, and Foundation of Philippi. ^ 8. The 
Social War. § 9. Commencement of the Sacred Wax: The Phocians seize Delphi. 
§ 10. Successes of the Phocians. § 11. Philip interferes in the War. Conquers 
Thessaly. § 12. Philip in Thrace. Demosthenes. ^ 13. The Olynthian War. § 14. 
Character of Phocion. Fall of Olynthus. § 15. Progress of the Sacred War. 
Embassy to Philip. § 16. Conquest of Phocis by Philip. Sentence of the Aiuphic- 
tvouio Council on the Phocians. ... . . 466 

d 



XXVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

FKOM THE END OE THE SACRED WAR TO THE DEATH OF PHILIP. 

§ 1. Eesults of the Sacred War. § 2. Macedonian Embassy to Athens. Second Philip- 
pic. § 3. Philip's Expedition into Thrace. § 4. Third Philippic. Progress of Philip. 
Siege of Perinthus. § 5. Phocion's Successes in Euboea. § 6. Declaration of "War 
between Athens and Macedon. Phocion compels Philip to evacuate the Chersonese. 
§ 7. Charge of Sacrilege against the Amphissians. ^ 8. Philip appointed General by 
the Amphictyons, to conduct the War against Amphissa. § 9. He seizes Elatea. 
League between Athens and Thebes. § 10. Battle of Charonea. § 11. Philip's ex- 
travagant Joy for his Victory. § 12. Congress at Corinth. Philip's Progress through 
the Peloponnesus. § 13. Philip's Domestic Quarrels. § 14. Preparations for the 
Persian Expedition. § 15. Assassination of Philip. ..... 48C 

CHAPTEE XLIV. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

\ 1. Education of Alexander. § 2. Eejoicings at Athens for Philip's death. Movements 
in Greece. § 3. Alexander overawes the JIalecontents, and is appointed Generalissi- 
mo for the Persian War. § 4. Alexander subdues the Triballians, Gets3, lUyrians, and 
Taulantians. § 5. Revolt and Destruction of Thebes. § 6. Alexander prepares to 
invade Persia. Nature of that Empire. § 7. Alexander crosses the Hellespont. § 8. 
Battle of the Granicus. § 9. Alexander overruns Asia Minor. The Gordian Knot. 
§ 10. March through Cilicia. Battle of Issus. Victory. § 11. Conquest of Phcenicia. 
Siege of Tyre. § 12. Alexander marches into Egypt. Foundation of Alexandria. 
Oracle of Ammon. § 13. Battle of Arbela. § 14. Alexander takes Possession of Baby- 
lon, Susa, and Persepolis. § 15. March to Ecbatana, and Pursuit of Darms. Death of 
Darius. § 16. March through Hyrcania, Asia, and Drangiana. Conspiracy of Phi- 
lotas. § 17. Alexander crosses the Oxus. Death of Bessus. Reduction of Sogdiana. 
Alexander raanies Roxana. § 18. Murder of Clitus. § 19. Plot of the Pages. Alex- 
ander invades the Penjdb, and defeats Porus. Marches as far as the Hyphasis. § 20. 
Descent of the Hydaspes and Indus. § 21. March through Gedrosia. Voyage of 
Nearchus. § 22. Arrival at Susa. Intermarriages of the Greeks and Persians. Mu- 
tiny of the Army. § 23. Death of Hephsestion. Alexander takes up his Residence 
at Babylon. His Death. § 24. Character. . . . . ■ . .490 

CHAPTEE XLV. 

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO THE BATTLE OF 

IPSUS. 

§ 1. Division of the Provinces after Alexander's Death. § 2. Retrospective View of Gre- 
cian Aifairs. Revolt of Agis. Demosthenes de Corona. § 3. Arrival of Harpalus at 
Athens. Accusation and Exile of Demosthenes. § 4. The Lamian War. Defeat of 
Antipater, and Siege of Lamia. § 5. Defeat and Death of Leonnatus. Battle of Crannon. 
End of the Lamian War. § 6. Death of Demosthenes. § 7. Ambitious Projects of Per- 
diccas. His Invasion of Egypt, and Death. § 8. Fresh Division of the Provinces at 
Triparfldisus. Death of Antipater. Polysperchon becomes Regent, and conciliates 
the Grecian States. Death of Phocion. § 9. War between Polysperchon and Cassan- 
der. Ill-success of Polysperchon. Cassander becomes Master of Macedonia, and puts 
Olympias to Death. § 10. Coalition against Antigonus. Peace concluded in b. c. 311. 
Murder of Roxana and her Son. § 11. Renewal of the War against Antigonus. De- 
metrius Poliorcetes expels the Macedonians from Athens. ^ 12. Demetrius Poliorce- 
tes at Cyprus. Battle of Salamis. Attempt on Egypt. Siege of Rhodes. § 13. Bat- 
tle of Ipsus, and Death of Antigonus. . . . . . • .514 



CONTENTS. XXVU 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

PROM THE BATTLE OF IPSUS TO THE CONQUEST OF GREECE BT THB 

ROMANS. 

§ 1. Proceedings of Demetrius Poliorcetes. He captures Athens. § 2. Obtains tbe 
Macedonian Crown. His Fliglit and Death. § 3. Lysimachus reigns over Macedonia. 
He is defeated and slain by Seleucus. § 4. Seleucus assassinated by Ptolemy 
Ceraunus. Invasion of the Celts, and Death of Ptolemy Ceraunus. § 5. Antigonus 
Gonatas ascends the Macedonian Throne. Death of Pja-rhus of Epeirus. Chremo- 
nidean War. § 6. The Achsean League. § 7. State of Sparta. Eeforms of Agis and 
Cleomenes. The Cleomenic War. § 8. The jEtolian League. § 9. The Social War. 
§ 10. War between Philip and the Romans. § 11. Philopoemen. § 12. Second War 
between Philip and the Romans. Battle of Cynoscephali3e. § 13. Defeat of Antio- 
chus, and "Subjugation of the jEtolians by the Romans. § 14. Extension of the Achaean 
League. Conquest of Sparta. Death of Philopoemen. § 15. War between Perseus 
and the Romans. Conquest of ]\Lacedonia. ^ 16. Proceedings of the Romans in 
Greece. § 17. Athens and Oropus. War between the Achseans and Spartans. 
§ 18. The Spartans appeal to the Romans, who reduce Greece into a Roman 
Province. .......... 525 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

HISTORY OP GRECIAN ART FROM THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN 
WAR TO ITS DECLINE. 

§ 1. Later School of Athenian Sculpture. § 2. Scopas. § 3. Praxiteles. § 4. Sicyo- 
nian School of Sculpture. Euphranor, Lysippus. § 5. Sicyonian School of Painting. 
Eupompus, Pamphilus, Apelles. § 6. Architecture. § 7. Period after Aexander the 
Great. School of Rhodes. § 8. Plunder of Greek Works of Art by the Romans. , 539 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

GRECIAN LITERATURE FROM THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN "WAR 
TO THE LATEST PERIOD. 

§ 1. The Drama. The Middle Comedy. The New, Comedy: Philemon, Menander. 
§ 2. Oratory. Circumstances which favored it at Athens. § 3. Its Sicilian Origin. 
§ 4. Tlie Ten Attic Orators: Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isteus, iEschines, 
Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hypereides, and Dinarchus. § 5, Athenian Philosophy : Plato. 
4 6. Sketch of his Philosophy. § 7. The Megarics, Cyrenaics, and Cynics. § 8. The 
Academicians. § 9. Aristotle and the Peripatetics. § 10. The Stoics and Epicureans. 
§ 11. The Alexandrian School of Literature. § 12. Later Greek Writers: Polybius, 
Dionysius of Halicai-nassus, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, Appian, Plutarch, Josephus, 
Strabo, Pausanias, Dion Cassius, Lucian, Galen. ^ 13. The Greek Scriptures and 
Fathers. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . 548 



BOOK VII. 



GREECE FROM THE ROMAN CONQUEST TO THE 
PRESENT TIME. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS. 

1. Roman Administration. § 2. Sylla, Mithridatic War. § 3. Cilician Pirates. § 4. State 
of Greece. § 5. Effects of the Establishment of the Roman Empire. § 6. Hadrian's 



XXVUl CONTENTS. 

Benefactions to Greece. Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Herodes Atticus, Caracalla. 
§ 7. Gothic Invasion. § 8. Language, Poetry, Christianity. ^ 9. Decay of Pa- 
ganism. Popular Elements of Christianity. § 10. Roman View of Christianity. Tri- 
umph of Christianity. ......... 561 

CHAPTER L. 

FKOM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE IMMIGRATION OF 
THE SLAVONIANS INTO GREECE. 

f 1. Building of Constantinople. § 2. Effect of transferring the Seat of Government to 
Byzantium. § 3. Local Governments. § 4. The Emperor Julian. § 5. Separation of 
the Eastern and Western Empires. The Goths. New Meaning of the Name Hellenes. 
AttUa and the Huns. ^ 6. Eeign of Justinian. § 7. Slavonians. . . . 569 

CHAPTER LI. 

PARTITION OP THE EMPIRE. 

§ 1. Conquests of the Normans. § 2. Crusades. Prankish Domination in Greece. § 3. 
Dukes of Athens. § 4. Origin and Progress of the Turks. § 5. Mohammed II. Prep- 
arations for' the Capture of Constantinople. § 6. Capture of Constantinople. § 7. 
Conquest of the Morea. § 8. Conquest of Trebizond. § 9. Byzantine Writers, their 
General Characteristics. § 10. Zosimus, Procopius, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 
Kicephorus Bryennius, Anna Comnena, Laonicos Chalcocondyles. . . . 577 

CHAPTER LIT. _^ 

GREECE UNDER THE TURKS. 

§ 1. Effect of the Fall of Constantinople on Western Europe. § 2. Efforts to combine 
the Christian Powers against the Turks. § 3. Greek Literature in the West before 
the Fall of Constantinople. § 4. Diffusion of Greek Literature after the Fall of Con- 
stantinople. § 5. Wars of the Venetians with the Turks. Battle of Lepanto. Ex- 
pedition of Morosini. § 6. Efforts of the Turks to recover the Peloponnesus. Peace 
of Passarowitz. § 7. Turkish Organization of Greece. Extortions of the Pachas. 
Taxes. Harateh. Land Tax. Other Burdens. Condition of the Rajahs. § 8. The 
Traibojid^cofia, or Levy of Childi-en for the Janizaries. History of the Janizaries. 
§ 9. General Condition of Greece. Greek Islands. § 10. Preservation of the Greek 
Nationality during the Period of Turkish Domination. Armatoloi, Klephtai. Char- 
acter of the Klephts. Klephtic Ballads. § 11. Preparations for the Revolution. 
Rhegas. Coraes. . . ..... 683 

CHAPTER LIII. 

THE GREEK REVOLUTION. KINGDOM OF HELLAS. 

\ 1. Movements previous to the War of the Revolution. Insurrection of 1769. OrlofiF 
and the Russian Fleet. Naval Expedition of Lampros, in 1787. Ali Pacha. An- 
droutsos. § 2. Characteristics of the War of the Revolution, as sketched by Mr. Tri- 
coupes. § 3. Opening of the War. Prince Ypseiantes. Germanos, Archbishop of 
Patrse. Scenes at Constantinople. Defeat at Dragaschan. § 4. Death of Diakos at 
Thermopylae. § 5. Capture of Tripolis (Tripolitza). Local Governments. First Na- 
tional Assembly at Epidauros. First Constitution. § 6. Massacre of Scio. § 7. Second 
National Assembly at Astros. Marcos Botzares. § 8. Efforts in Favor of the Greeks. 
§ 9. Intervention of Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt. Loan. § 10. Philhellenes. Gor- 
don, Fabvier, Meyer, Hastings, General Church, Miller, Howe, Fiulay, Lord Byron. 
^ 11. Siege and Capture of Mesolongi. § 12. Movements subsequent to the Fall of 



CONTENTS. XXIX 

Mesolongi. Siege of Athens. Gouras takes Possession of the Citadel. Death of 
Gorras. Attempts to relieve the Garrison. § 13. National Assembly at Troezene. 
Election of Capo D'Istrias to the Presidency of Greece. Karaiskakes. § 14. Bad 
Faith of the Greeks. Death of Karaiskakes. His Character. § 15. Battle in the 
Plain of Athens. § 16. Interference of the European Cabinets. § 17. Obstinacy of 
the Porte. Battle of Navarino. War between Russia and Turkey. Cessation of 
Hostilities. § 18. Attempts to settle the Affairs of Greece. Assassination of Capo 
D'Istrias. Selection of Otho of Bavaria as King. His Arrival. Organization of 
Greece. His Marriage. § 19. Constitution of 1843. § 20. State of Education. § 21. 
Language. § 22. Literature. § 23. Popular Poetry and Klephtic Ballads . . 607 



GHRONOLOGICtL TABLE . . . • • . . . 643 

Ihdex ..••••••*» 067 



ifi''iCil|',''M,i 





The Bema of the Pnyx at Athens. 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 



# 



View of Athens 

Theatre of Dionysus at Athens 



Fkontispieck, 
. Title-Page- 



Page 



Greels and Persian Combatants. From 
the Frieze of the Temple of Nik^ Ap- 

teros xiii 

The Bema of tlie Pnyx at Athens xxx 

Vale of Tempe in Thessaly .... 1 
Map of Greece, showing the general di- 
rection of tlie ilountain Ranges . . 3 

Arch of Tiryns 9 

Head of Olympian Zeus 10 

Paris, from the jEginetan Sculptures . 15 
Ajax, from the Jiginetan Sculptures . 16 

Gate of Lions at Mycenaj 24 

Greek Warrior 29 

Hercules and Bull. (From a bas-relief 

in the Vatican.) 30 

Map of the chief Greek Colonies in Asia 

Minor 85 

Temple of Ares in Halicarnassus ... 37 

Homer enthroned 38 

Bust of Homer 44 

Primitive Vessel."- from Athens and Argos 45 

Greek Cur used in Games 53 

View of Mount Taygetus from the Site 

ofSpnrta 54 

Head of Lycurgus 68 

Early Greek Armor, from Vase-Paint- 

ings 69 

Messene 75 

Leaden Sling-bullets and Arrow-heads, 
found at Athens, Marathon, and Le- 

ontini 76 

Coin of Corinth 82 

Croesus on the Funeral Pile .... 83 
Ruins of the Temple of the Olympian 

Zeus i\t Athens 97 

Coin of Athens 107 

Ancient Sculptures from Selinus . . 108 
Map of the chief Creek Colonies in 

Sicily 112 

Map of the chief Greek Colonies in 

Southern Italy 115 

C.'>in of Cyrene, representing on the I'e- 
verse the Silphium 118 



Page 
Alcseus and Sappho. From a Paintitig 

on a Vase 119 

Temple at jEgina, restored 132 

Wall at Tiryns 133 

Wall of the Citadel of Argos . . . . 133 
Wooden Hut in Asia Minor . . . . 134 
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Columns . 135 
Doric Architecture. From Temple at 

Phigalia 136 

Ionic Architecture. From the Erech- 

theum 136 

Corinthian Architecture. From the 

Monument of Lysicrates .... 137 
Cyrus, from a bas-i-elief at Pasargadse . 142 
Behistun Rock, on which are inscribed 

the exploits of Darius 153 

The Plain and Tumulus of Marathon . 160 

Battle of Marathon 164 

Bust of IMiltiades . 171 

View of Thermopylse 172 

Plan of Tliermopyla3 179 

A- Greek Warrior. From an Ancient 

Vase 187 

Battle of Salamis 195 

Temple of Nik^ Apteros (the Wingless 

Victory), on the Acropolis at Athens, 

restored 203 

Battle of Platsea 207 

Ruins of an Ionic Temple in Lycia . . 214 

Bust of Pindar 215 

Bust of Herodotus , 223 

Front of the Theseum at Athens . . . 224 

Pericles and Aspasia 235 

The Acropolis, restored 248 

Bust of tiie Poet Sophocles .... 264 
The Propylisa of the Acropolis, restored 255 
Bust of the Historian Thucydides . . 265 

The Parthenon, restored 266 

Statue of Theseus, from the Pediment 

of the Parthenon 277 

From the Frieze of the Parthenon. Pan- 

athenaic Procession . ■ ■ 287 

Bay of Fyios . . . . . ... 389 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XXXI 



Page 
Plan of the Neighborhood of Amphipo- 

Hs .297 

Coin of Amphipolis 300 

Centaur from the Metopes of the Par- 
thenon 301 

Bust of Alcibiades 311 

Plan of Syracuse 316 

Street of the Tripods at Athens, from a 

bas-relief 324 

One of the Caryatides supporting the 

Southern Portico of the Erechtheum 334 

Bust of the Poet Euripides 344 

ViewofPhyl^ 345 

Cho, the Muse of History . . . . . 355 
The Erechtheum restored, viewed from 

the Southwest Angle 356 

Plan of Athens ......... 358 

Athens and its Port Towns 360 

Plan of the Acropolis 367 

Coin showing the Parthenon, Athena 

Promachos, and the Cave of Pan . ' . 370 
Theatre of Dionysus, from a Coin . . 372 
Melpomen^, the Muse of Tragedy . . 375 
Thalia, the Muse of Comedy .... 375 

Bust of Socrates 392 

The Pactolus at Sardis 393 

Route of the Ten Thousand .... 395 
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, in 

the Street of Tripods at Athens . . 407 
View of Corinth and the Acrocorin- 

thos 415 



Page 
Plan of Corinth 420 

Adventures of Dionysus, from the Cho- 
ragic Monument of Lysicrates 426, 427 
The Wind Boreas, from the Horolo- 
gium of Andronicus Cyrrhestes at 

Athens 438 

Ithome, from the Stadium of Messene . 439 

Bust of Plato 455 

View of Delphi and Mount Parnassus . 466 

The Plain of Chaeronea 480 

Bust of Demosthenes 489 

Battle of Issus. From a Mosaic found 

at Pompeii 490 

Bust of the Poet Menander .... 513 
The Group of Niobe. From the Collec- 
tion in the Uffici Palace at Florence 514 
Group of Dirce. From the Museum at 

Naples 525 

Apollo Citharoedus. From the Collection 

in the Vatican 538 

Group of the Laocoon in the Vatican . 539 

Bust of Aristotle 546 

Acropolis of Athens in its present State 561 
Cathedral Church of St. Sophia . . .569 
Constantinople, or Stamboul .... 577 
Side View of the Theseum .... 593 

Castle of Patraa 607 

Mount Olympus 642 

Colonial Coin of Corinth 655 

Horologium of Andronicus Cyrrhestes at 
Athens 657 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 




Vale of Tempe in Thessaly. 



INTRODUCTION. 



OUTLINES OF GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 

} 1. The three Peninsulas of Southern Europe. § 2. Position and Boundaries of Greece. 
^3. Size of the Country. ^ 4. Name. § 5. Northern Greece: Thessaly and Epeirus. 
§ 6. Central Greece: its Principal Divisions and Mountains. § 7. Eastei-n Half of Central 
Greece: Doris, Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, Attica, Megaris. § 8. Western Half of Central 
Greece: Ozolian Locris, jEtolia, Acamania. § 9. Peloponnesus: Arcadia. § 10. Achaia, 
Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, Elis. §11. The Grecian Islands. § 12. Influence of the Phys- 
ical Geography of Greece upon the Political Destinies of the People. § 13. Likewise 
upon their Intellectual Character. § 14. Kivers and Chief Productions. § 15. Climate. 

§ 1. Three peninsulas, very different in form, project from the South 
of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea. The most westerly, that of Spain 
and Portugal, is a quadi-angular figure united to the mainland by an isth- 
mus. The central one, that of Italy, is a long tongue of land, down which 
runs from north to south tlie backbone of the Apennines. The most 
easterly, of which Greece forms the southern part, is in the shape of a 
1 



Z HISTORY OF GREECE. [InteOD. 

triangle witli its base extending from the top of the Adriatic to the mouths 
of the river Danube, and having its two sides washed by the sea. 

§ 2. At the fortieth degree of latitude a chain of mountains called the 
Cambunian, and continued under the name of Lingon, runs across the 
peninsula from east to west, and forms the northern boundary of Greece. 
At a time when the MediteiTanean was the great liighway of commerce 
and civilization, no position could be more favorable than that of Greece. 
The ^gean Sea, wliich bathes its eastern shores, is studded with numer- 
ous islands, inviting the timid mariner from one to the other, and thus 
establishing an easy communication between Asia and Greece. Towards 
the south it faces one of the most fertile portions of Africa ; and on the 
west it is divided from Italy by a narrow channel, which in one part is 
not more than thirty miles in breadth. 

§ 3. Greece, which commences at the fortieth degree of latitude, does 
not extend farther than the thirty-sixth. Its greatest length, from Mount 
Olympus to Cape Ttenarum, is not more than 250 Enghsh miles ; its 
greatest breadth from the western coast of Acarnania to Marathon in 
Attica is only 180 miles. Its surface is considerably less than that of 
Portugal. This small area was divided among a number of independent 
states, many of them contaming a territory of only a few square mUes, 
and none of them larger than an English county. But it is not the mag- 
nitude of their territory which constitutes the greatness of a peoj)le ; and 
the heroism and genius of the Greeks have given an interest to the msig- 
nificant spot of earth bearing their name, which the vast empires of Rus- 
sia and China have never equalled. 

§ 4. The name of Greece was never used by the inhabitants of the 
country. They called their land Hellas, and themselves Hellenes. It is 
from the Romans that we have derived the name of Greece; though 
why the Romans gave it a different appellation from that used by the 
natives cannot be determined.* It is, however, a well-known fact, that 
foreigners frequently call a people by a name different fi'om the one in use 
among themselves. Thus the nation called Germans by us bear the 
appellation of Deutschen among themselves ; and the people whom the 
Romans named Etruscans or Tuscans, were known in their own language 
by that of Rasena. 

The word Hellas signified at first only a small district in Thessaly, the 
original abode of the Hellenes. From this district the people, and along 
with them their name, gradually spread over the whole country south of 
the Cambunian Mountains. The rude tribes of Epeirus, however, were 
not reckoned among the Hellenes, and the northern boundary of Hellas 



* The Grseci, TpaiKoi, were one of the ancient tribes living in the neighborhood of 
Dodona. The primitive connection between the inhabitants of the North of Greece and 
of Italy was probably the origin of the prevalence of this name among the Eomans. — Ed. 



Inteod.] 



OUTLINES OF GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 



3 



proper was a line drawn from the Ambracian Gulf to the mouth of the 
river Peneus. The term Hellas was also employed in a more extended 
sense, to signify the abode of the Hellenes, wherever they might be set- 
tled ; and accordingly the Grecian cities of Cyrene in Africa, of Syracuse 
in Sicily, and of Tarentum * in Italy, were as much parts of Hellas as 
Athens, Sparta, and Corinth. 

§ 5. Midway between the Ionian and JEgean Seas the chain of moun 
tains forming the northern boundary of Greece is intersected at right an- 




Map of Greece, showing the general direction of the Mountain Eanges. 



1. Thessaly. 

2. Epeirus. 
8. Doris. 
4. Phocis. 

6. Locri Epicnemidil. 
6. Locri Opuntii. 



7. Boeotia. 

8. Attica. 



10. Locri Ozolae 

11. ^tolia. 

12. Acamama. 



13. Arcadia. 

14. Achaia. 

15. Argolis. 

16. Laconia. 

17. Messeuia. 



18. Elis. 
19 Eubcea. 

20. Salamis. 

21. ^gina. 

22. Cythera. 



* Called Taras {Tdpas) by the Greeks. 



a HISTORT OF GREECE. [IntkOD 

gles by the long and lofty range of Pindus, running from nortli to south, 
like the Apennines of the Italian peninsula. From Mount Pindus two 
lateral branches stretch towards the eastern sea, running parallel to one 
another at the distance of sixty miles, and inclosing the plain of Thessaly, 
the richest and largest in Greece. The southern of these two branches 
bore the name of Othrys ; the northern, wliich has been akeady men- 
tioned under the name of the Cambunian Mountains, terminates upon the 
coast in the lofty summit of Olympus, the highest in all Greece, bemg 
9,700 feet above the level of the sea, and scarcely ever free from snow. 
South of Olympus another range, known under the successive names of 
Ossa and Pehon, stretches along the coast parallel to that of Pindus. 
Thus Thessaly is inclosed between four natural rampai'ts, which are only 
broken at the northeastern extremity by the celebrated Vale of TemjDC, 
between Olympus and Ossa, through which the river Peneus finds its way 
into the sea. 

Pmdus forms the boundary between Thessaly and Epeirus. The latter 
country contaius no inclosed plain hke that of Thessaly, but is covered 
by rugged ranges of mountains running from north to south, through 
which the Achelous, the largest river of Greece, flows towards the Corin- 
thian Gulf. 

§ 6. At about the thirty-ninth degree of latitude Greece is contracted 
into a kind of isthmus by two opposite gulfs, the Ambracian on the west 
and the Mahan on the east. This isthmus separates the peninsula of Cen- 
tral Greece from the mainland of Thessaly and Epeirus. 

Central Greece, again, may be divided into two unequal halves, the 
eastern half containing the countries of Doris, Phocis, Locris, Bceotia, 
Attica, and Megaris, the western comprising OzoHan Locris, ^toha, and 
Acarnania. 

A httle above the thirty-ninth degree of latitude there is a summit in 
the range of Pindus, called Mount Tymphrestus, from which ranges of 
mountains radiate, as from a centre, in all directions. On the east two 
gigantic arms branch off towards the sea : the one which runs nearly 
due east under the name of Othrys has been already mentioned ; the 
other, which bears the name of CEta, has a southeasterly du-ection, and 
'forms the northern barrier of Central Greece. The only entrance into 
Central Greece from the north is through a narrow opening left between 
Mount CEta and the sea, immortalized in history under the naii.a of 
Thermopylae. 

South of Tymphrestus the chain of Pindus divides into two great 
branches, and no longer bears the same name : one strikes to the south- 
east under the names of Parnassus, Helicon, Cithjeron, and Hymettus, 
and finally reaches the sea at Sunium, the southernmost point of Attica ; 
the other diverges to the southwest under the names of Corax and the Ozo- 
liaa Mountains, and joins the sea near the entrance of the Corinthian Gul£ 



IntrOD.] outlines of GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 5 

§ 7. In the Mghlaads between (Eta and Parnassus is a narrow plain 
(Jailed Doris, from which the Dorians are said to have issued to the con- 
quest of Peloponnesus. Here rises the river Cephissus, which flows into 
Phocis. The gi'eater part of Phocis is occupied by Parnassus, which rises 
to the height of 8,000 feet, but between this mountain and those of East- 
ern Locris is a fertile plain drained by the Cephissus. 

From the eastern extremity of Mount QEta a range of mountains runs 
soutliwards along the coast. It passes through the country of the Locrians, 
called respectively Epicnemidian, from Mount Cnemis, and Opuntian, 
from the town of Opus. Bceotia extends from sea to sea, but it is sepa- 
rated from the Eubcean channel by a continuation of the Locrian moun- 
tains and from the Cormtliian Gulf by the lofty range of Helicon, cele- 
brated in poetry as the abode of the Muses. On its northern frontier the 
offshoots of Parnassus and the Locrian mountaias leave only a narrow 
opening through which the Cephissus flows ; and on the south the country 
is shut in by the lofty barrier of Cithseron and Pai'nes, which separate it 
from Attica. Bceotia is thus a large hollow basm, inclosed on every side 
by mountains, and containing a considerable quantity of very fertile land. 
The Cephissus, and the streams which descend from the suiTounding 
hills, form in the centre of the country the lake Copai's, which finds an 
outlet for its waters through subterraneous channels m the limestone 
mountains. 

Attica is in the form of a triangle, having two of its sides washed by the 
sea and its base united to the land. The range of Cithteron and Parnes, 
which forms its northern boundary, shuts off this peninsula from the rest of 
Greece. Cithteron is prolonged towards the southwest, skirting the shores 
of the Corinthian Gulf and forming the mountainous country of Megaris. 
Here it rises into a new chain under the name of the Geranean Mountains, 
which stretch across Megaris from west to east, parallel to Cithseron. 
These mountains sink down southwards towards the Isthmus, which sepa- 
rates Central Greece from Peloponnesus. Here the Corinthian Gulf on the 
west and the Saronic Gulf on the east penetrate so far inland as to leave 
only a narrow neck of land between them, not more than four miles across 
at its narrowest part. The Isthmus is comparatively level, but imme- 
diately to the south rise the Onean hiUs, protecting Peloponnesus from 
invasion by land. 

§ 8. The western half of Central Greece consists, as already said, of 
Locris, ^tolia, and Acarnania. Locris, called OzoUan to distinguish it from 
the eastern district of this name, lies upon the Corinthian Gulf, and is a 
wild and mountainous country, nearly covered by the offshoots of the Pho- 
cian .Parnassus and the ^tolian Corax. ^tolia and Acarnania, sepa- 
rated by the river Achelous, are also mountainous, the greater part of their 
surface being occupied by a continuation of the hills of Epeirns, but at the 
same time containing a few fertile plains upon the banks of the Achelous. 



/ 



6 HISTORY OF GREECE. [IntROU 

All three countries were the haunts of rude robber tribes even as late aa 
the Peloponnesian war. 

§ 9. The Isthmus which connects Central Greece with the sou them 
peninsula is so small in comparison with the outspread form of the latter, 
that the ancients regarded the peninsula as an island, and gave it the name 
of Peloponnesus, or the island of Pelops, from tlie mythical hero of this 
name. Its form was compared in antiquity to the leaf of the plane-tree or 
the vine, and its modem name, the Morea, was bestowed upon it from its 
resemblance to the leaf of the mulberry. 

The mountains of Peloponnesus have their roots in the centre of the 
country, from which they branch out towards the sea. This central region, 
called Arcadia, is the Switzerland of the penmsula. It is surrounded by 
a ring of mountains, formmg a kind of natural wall, which separates it 
from the other Peloponnesian states. These mountains are unbroken on 
the northern, eastern, and southern frontiers, and it is only on the western 
side that the waters of the Alpheus, the chief river in the peninsula, find 
their way through a narrow opening towards the Ionian Sea. It is on the 
northern frontier that the Arcadian mountams are the loftiest and most 
massive ; and at the northeastern extremity of the country Mount Cyllene 
rises to the height of 7,788 feet above the level of the sea, a grand and 
majestic object as seen from the Istlimus and the Corinthian Gulf. 

§ 10. The other cliief divisions of Peloponnesus were Achaia, Argohs, 
Laconia, Messenia, and Ehs. Achaia was a narrow slip of country lying 
between the northern barrier of Arcadia and the Corinthian Gulf. It is 
intersected by numerous ranges of hills, which descend from the Arcadian 
mountains, and either run out into the sea in the form of bold promon- 
tories, or subside before reaching the shore. The plains thus left on the 
coast, and the valleys between the mountains, are for the most part very 
fertile. 

Argolis was used as a collective term to signify the territories of several 
independent states. Of these the most important were Corinth and Sicyon, 
near the eastern extremity of the Corinthian Gulf, and Ai'gos, situated at 
the head of the Argohc Gulf, in a plam ten or twelve miles in length and 
from four to five in breadth. The remainder of Ai-goHs consisted of a 
rocky peninsula between the Saronic and Ai'golic Gulfs, containing at its 
eastern extremity the territories of Epidaurus,.Troezen, and Hermione. 

Laconia and Messenia occupied the whole of the south of Peloponnesus 
from sea to sea. They were separated by the lofty range of Taygetus, run- 
nmg from north to south and terminating in the promontory of Tajnarum 
(now Cape Matapan), the southernmost point of Greece and Europe. 
Along the eastern side of Laconia the range of Mount Parnon extends 
from north to south parallel to that of Taygetus, and terminates in the 
promontory of Malea. Between these two ranges is the valley of the 
Eurotas, in which Sparta stood, and which south of this city opens out 



IntkOD.] outlines of GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 7 

into a plain of considerable extent towards the Laconian Gulf. Messenia 
in like manner was drained by the Pamisus, whose plain is still more 
extensive and fertile than that of the Eurotas. 

Elis was the region between the western barrier of Aa-cadia and the 
Ionian Sea. It is covered to a great extent with the offshoots of the 
Arcadian mountains, but contains several plains. In the centre of the 
country is the memorable plain of Olympia, through which the Alpheus, 
flows, and in which the city of Pisa stood. 

§ 11. The numerous islands which line the Grecian shores were occu 
pupied in historical times by the Grecian race. Of these the most impor- 
tant was Eubcea, ninety miles in length, stretching along the coasts of 
Bceotia and Attica. Tlu-ough it ran from north to south a long chain of 
mountains, which may be regarded as a continuation of the range of Ossa 
aad Pelion. South of Euboea was the group of islands called the Gyclades, 
lying round Delos as a centre ; and east of these were the Sporades, near 
the Asiatic coast. South of these groups lay the two large islands of Gi^ete 
and Rhodes,. In the Saronic Gulf between Attica and ArgoHs were the 
celebrated islands of Salamis and ^gina, the former reckoned as part of 
Attica, and the latter long the rival and eyesore of Athens. Off the 
western coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, we find Corcyra opposite 
Epeirus, Cephallenia and Ithaca opposite Acarnania, and Zacynthus near 
the coast of EUs in Peloponnesus. Cythera wa,s separated by a narrow 
channel from the southern extremity of Laconia. 

§ 12. The physical features of the country exercised an important influ- 
ence upon the pohtical destinies of the people. Greece is one of the most 
mountainous countries of Europe. Its surface is occupied by a number of 
small plains, either entirely smTOunded by limestone mountains or open 
only to the sea. Mountains, not rivers, have in all ages proved the 
greatest barriers to intercourse between neighbormg tribes. This was the 
case in Greece, and thus the very nature of the land tended to produce 
that large number of independent states which is one of the most strikiag 
phenomena in Grecian history. Each of the principal Grecian cities was 
founded in one of the small plains already described ; and as the moun- 
tains which separated it from its neighbors were lofty and rugged, it grew 
up in solitary independence, and formed its own character before it could 
be affected by any external influence. 

The mountainous nature of the country also protected it from foreign 
invasion, as well as rendered it difficult for one section of the Grecian race 
to subdue the rest. The Vale of Tempe between Mounts Ossa and Olym- 
pus, the pass of Thermopylae between Northern and Central Greece, the 
passes over Mount Cithasron between Boeotia and Attica, and those over 
the Geranean and Onean Mountains on either side of the Isthmus, could 
easily be defended by a handful of resolute men against vastly superioi 
numbers. 



8 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Intbod. 

But, while the Grecian states were separated from their nearest neigh- 
bors by their mountains, the sea afforded them easy intercourse with one 
another and with the rest of the world. One of the most striking pecu- 
harities of the geography of Greece is the wonderful extent of its sea- 
coast. In this respect it has the advantage over every other country 
of Europe. Although its surface is not so great as that of Portugal, 
its line of coast exceeds that of the whole peninsula of Portugal and 
Spain. Not only is it surrounded by the sea on every side except on its 
northern frontier, but its coast is also broken by a number of hays and 
gulfs running far into the land. Thus almost every Grecian state had 
ready and easy access to the sea, and Arcadia was ahnost the only politi- 
cal division that did not possess some territory upon the coast. 

§ 13. Of all natural objects the mountains and the sea have ever been 
the most powerful instruments in moulding the intellectual character of a 
people. The Greeks were both mountaineers and mariners, and as such 
they possessed the susceptibihty to external impressions, the love of free- 
dom, and the spirit of adventure, which have always characterized, more 
or less, the inhabitants of mountainous and maritime districts. The poet- 
ical beauty of the Grecian mountains has often called forth the admu-ation 
of modern travellers. Their craggy, broken forms and rich silvery color 
give to the Grecian landscape a peculiar charm, and justify the description 
of the poet Gray, when he speaks of Greece as a land 

" Where each old poetic mountain 
Inspiration breathes around." 

The beauty of the sceneiy is stUl further enhanced by the gorgeous atmos- 
phere in which every object is bathed. To a native of the northern lati- 
tudes of Europe nothing is more striking in the Grecian climate than the 
transparent clearness of the air and the brilliant coloring of the sky. 
When Euripides represents the Athenians as 

" Ever delicately marching 

Through most pellucid air," * 

he is guilty of no poetical exaggeration, and the violet- color which the 
Roman poet assigns to the hills of Hymettus f is literally true. 

§ 14. Greece is deficient in a regular supply of water. During the 
autumnal and winter months the rain, which falls in large quantities, fiUs 
the crevices in the limestone of the hills and is carried off by torrents. In 
summer rain is ahnost unknown, and the beds of the torrents full of water 
in the winter then become ravines, perfectly dry and overgrown with 
shrubs. Even the rivers, which are partly supplied by springs, dwindle 
in the summer into very msignificant streams. None of the Grecian rivers 

* 'Ael tia XanTTpoTaTov 

Baluovres ajSpas aldepos — Eurip. Med. 829. 
t " Est prope purpureas colles florentis Hymetti 

Fons sacer." — Ovid, Art. Amat. 3. 687. 



Introd] 



OUTLINES OF GRECIAN GEOGRAPHY. 



9 



are navigable, and the Aclielous, whicli is the most considerable of all, has 
a course of only 130 miles. 

The chief productions of Greece in ancient times were wheat, barley, 
flax, wine, and oil. The hills afforded excellent pasture for cattle, and in 
antiquity were covered with forests, though they are at present nearly des- 
titute of wood. 

In almost every part of Greece there were rich veins of marble, affoi'd- 
ing materials for the architect and the sculptor, such as hardly any other 
country in the world possesses. The limestone, of which most of its moun- 
tains is composed, is well adapted for military architecture; and it is to 
this hai'd and iatractable stone that we owe those massive polygonal walls, 
of which the remains stiU crown the summits of so many Grecian hills. 
Laurium near the southern extremity of Attica yielded a considerable 
quantity of silver, but otherwise Greece was poor in the precious metals. 
Iron was found in the range of Taygetus in Laconia, and copper as well as 
iron near Chalcis in Eubcea. 

§ 15. The chmate of Greece appears to have been more healthy in 
ancient times than it is at present. The malaria which now poisons the 
atmosphere in the summer months could not have existed to the same 
extent when the land was more thickly peopled and more carefully cul- 
tivated. Owing to the inequalities of its surface, to its lofty mountains and 
depressed valleys, the climate varies greatly in different districts. In the 
highlands in the interior the winter is often long and rigorous, the snow 
lying upon the ground tUl late in the spring, while in the lowlands open 
to the sea, severe weather is almost unknown. The rigor of winter is fre- 
quently experienced in the highlands of Mantinea and Tegea in the month 
of March, while at the same time the genial warmth of spring is felt in the 
plains of Ai'gos and Laconia, and almost the heat of summer in the low 
grounds at the head of the Messenian Gulf. To this difference in chmate 
the ancients attributed the difference in the intellectual character of the 
natives of various districts. Thus the duhiess of the Boeotians was ascribed 
to the dampness and thickness of their atmosphere, while the dry and clear 
air of Attica was supposed to sharpen the faculties of its inhabitants. 




Arch of Tiryns. 




Head of Olympian Zeus. 

BOOK I. 
THE MYTHICAL AGE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EAELIEST INHABITANTS OF GREECE. 

1 1. Legendary Character of early Grecian History. § 2. Legends of the Greeks respecting 
their Origin. § 3. The Hellenes and their Diffusion in Greece. § 4. Connection of the 
Hellenes with the Indo-European Stem. § 5. The Pelasgians. § 6. Foreign Settlers in 
Greece. § 7. Egyptian Colonies of Cecrops and Danaus. § 8. Phrygian Colony of Pe- 
lops. § 9. Phoenician Colony of Cadmus. 

§ 1. The clouds whicli envelop the early history of Greece are lighted 
up by the brilliant hues of Grecian fable ; but the reader must carefully 
guard against believing in the reality of the personages or of the events 
commemorated by these beautiful legends. Some of them, it is true, prob- 
ably sprang out of events which actually occurred, and may therefore 
contain a kernel of historical truth ; but we have no means of distinguish- 
ing between what is true and what is false, between the historical facts and 
their subsequent embellishments. Till events are recorded in written 
documents, no materials exist for a trustworthy history ; and it was not 
till the epoch known by the name of the first Olympiad, corresponding to 
the year 776 before Christ, that the Greeks began to employ writing as a 
means for perpetuatiag the memory of any historical facts. Before that 



Chap. I.] the earliest inhabitants. H 

period everything is vague and uncertain ; and for two centuries after- 
wards we meet with only a few isolated events, and possess nothing in the 
form of a continuous history. But even the mythical age must not be 
passed over entirely. In all cases the traditions of a people are worthy of 
record ; and this is especially true of the Greeks, whose legends moulded 
their faith and influenced their conduct down to the latest times. 

§ 2. Few nations have paid more attention to their genealogy than the 
Greeks. In modern times families are ambitious of tracing back their 
origin to some illustrious ancestor ; but in Greece this feehng was not con- 
fined to families, but pervaded ahke all associations of men. Every petty 
tribe or clan claimed descent from a common ancestor, whose name was 
borne by each member of the community. This ancestor was usually 
represented as the son or immediate descendant of a god, or else as sprung 
jfrom the earth,* wliich was in such cases regarded as a divine being. 
Thus the Greek people considered themselves the children of one common 
father, in whose name they gloried as the symbol of fraternity. This 
ancestor was Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from whom the 
people derived the name of Hellenes. Hellen had three sons, Dorus, 
Xuthus, and ^olus. Of these Dorus and tEoIus gave their names to the 
Dorians and ^olians ; and Xuthus, through his two sons. Ion and Achteus, 
became the forefather of the lonians and Achgeans. In this way the four 
great divisions of the Greek race, the Dorians, -Cohans, lonians, and 
Achaeans, were supposed to be the descendants of the patriarch Hellen. 

§ 3. The descent of the Hellenes from a common ancestor, HeUen, was 
a fundamental article in the popular faith. It was a general practice in 
antiquity to invent fictitious persons for the purpose of explaining names of 
which the origin was buried in obscurity. It is in this way that Hellen 
and his sons came into being. But though they never had any real exist- 
ence, their history may be regarded as the traditional history of the races 
to whom they gave their names. Thus, when we are told that Hellen 
reigned in the South of Thessaly, near the foot of Mount Othrys, which 
was the part of Greece first called Hellas, we may conclude that the 
Greeks believed this district to be the. original abode of their race. In 
like manner the migrations of the sons of Hellen from the South of Thes- 
saly, and their settlements in the different parts of Greece, represent the 
current belief respecting the early history of the four great divisions of the 
race. 

tEoIus succeeded his father Hellen as king of Hellas in Tliessaly, but 
his descendants occupied a great part of Central Greece, as far as the Isth- 
mus of Corinth, and also took possession of the western coast of Pelopon- 
nesus. The ^olians were the most widely diffused of all the descendants 
of Hellen. Many of their towns, such as Corinth and lolcus in Thessaly 

* Hence called an Autochthon (^Avroxdcov). 



12 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap; I. 

were situated upon the coast, and tlie worship of Poseidon (Neptune), the 
god of the sea, prevailed extensively among them. 

The Achseans appear in the latter part of the Heroic Age as the most 
warlike of the Grecian races. At that time they are represented as inhab- 
iting the original abode of the Hellenes in Thessaly, and also the cities of 
Mycenae, Ai'gos, and Sparta, in the Peloponnesus. The most distinguished 
of the Grecian heroes in the Trojan wai* were Achseans ; and such was 
the celebrity of the race at that period, that Homer frequently gives their 
name to the whole body of the Greeks. 

The Dorians and lonians are of far less importance ia the ancient 
legends, though they afterwards became the two leading races in Greece, 
to whom the Spartans and Athenians respectively belonged. The Dorians 
were almost confined to the small mountainous district named after them, 
lying between Thessaly and Phocis ; the lonians were found chiefly in 
Attica and along the narrow shp of coast in the North of Peloponnesus, 
which in historical times was known by the name of Achaia. 

§ 4. Such was the general behef of the Greeks respecting the early dif- 
fusion of their race. But it is natural for us to go farther back, and to 
endeavor to ascertain the real origin of the people. Now the only sure 
and certain means of ascertaining the origin of any people is a knowledge 
of its language. Tradition misleads as often as it guides the inquirer ; and 
the indications afforded by mythology, manners, and customs are frequently 
deceptive and always vague. Language, on the other hand, is an endur- 
ing memorial ; and, whatever changes it may have undergone in the course 
of ages, it rarely loses those fundamental elements which proclaim its 
origin and affinities. If then we conduct our inquiry into the origin of the 
Greek people by means of their language, we have no difficulty in coming 
to a satisfactory conclusion. The Greek language is a member of that 
great family of languages to which modern scholars have given the name 
of Indo-European. The various nations speakmg the different varieties of 
this language were originally one people, inhabitmg the high table-land of 
Central Asia. At some period, long antecedent to all profane history^ they 
issued from their primeval seats, and spread over a considerable portion 
both of Asia and of Europe. In Asia the ancient Hindoos, who spoke 
Sanscrit, and the Medes and Persians, whose language was the Zend, were 
the twb principal branches of this people. In Europe the Germans, Pelas- 
gians, Slavonians, and Celts were the four chief varieties. It is foreign to 
our present purpose to give any account of the other branches of the Indo- 
European family ; but a few remarks must be made ujjon the Pelasgians, 
from whom the Greeks derived their origin. 

§ 5. The Pelasgians are represented by the Greeks themselves as the 
most ancient inhabitants of their land. The primitive name of Greece is 
said to have been Pelasgia. In the historical period, those parts of Greece 
which had been subject to the fewest changes of inhabitants were supposed 



Chap. I.J the earliest inhabitants. 13 

to be peopled by the descendants of the Pelasgians. This was especially 
the case with Arcadia and Attica, which claimed to have been inhabited 
by the same tribes from time immemorial. The Pelasgians were spread 
over the Italian as well as the Grecian peninsula ; and the Pelasgic lan- 
guage thus formed the basis of the Latin as well as of the Greek. It is 
true that Herodotus speaks of the Pelasgic as a foreign language, totally 
distmct from the Greek ; but his testimony on such a subject is not enti- 
tled to any weight, since the ancients were lamentably deficient in philo- 
logical knowledge, and had no notion of the affinity of languages. 

Of the Pelasgians themselves our information is scanty. They were 
not mere barbarians. They are represented as tilling the ground and 
dwelling in walled cities.* Their religion appears to have been essen- 
tially the same as the religion of the Hellenes. Their great divinity was 
Zeus, the national Hellenic god, and the chief seat of his worship was 
Dodona in Epirus. Hence Homer gives to the Dodonsean Jove the title 
of Pelasgic ; and his oracle at Dodona was always regarded as the most 
ancient in Greece. 

The Pelasgians were divided into several tribes, such as the Hellenes, 
Leleges, Caucones, and others. In what respects the Hellenes were supe- 
rior to the other Pelasgic tribes we do not know ; but they appear at the 
first dawn of history as the dominant race in Greece. The rest of the 
Pelasgians disappeared before them or were incorporated with them ; 
their dialect of the Pelasgic tongue became the language of Greece ; and 
their worship of the Olympian Zeus gradually supplanted the more ancient 
worship of the Dodonsean god. 

§ 6. The civilization of the Greeks and the development of their lan- 
guage bear all the marks of home growth, and probably were little affected 
by foreign influence. The traditions, however, of the Greeks would point 
to a contrary conclusion. It was a general behef among them, that the 
Pelasgians were reclaimed from barbarism by Oriental strangers, who set- 
tled in the country and introduced among the rude inhabitants the first 
elements of civilization. Many of these traditions, however, are not 
ancient legends, but owe their origin to the philosophical speculations of 
a later age, which loved to represent an imaginary progress of society, from 
the time when men fed on acorns and ran wild in woods, to the time when 
they became united into political communities and owned the supremacy 
of law and reason. The speculative Greeks who visited Egypt in the 
sixth and fifth centuries before the Christian era were profoundly im- 
pressed with the monuments of the old Egyptian monarchy, which even in 
that early age of the world indicated a gray and hoary antiquity. The 
Egyptian priests were not slow to avail themselves of the impression made 
upon their visitors, and told the latter many a wondrous tale to prove that 

* A fortified town was called Larissa by the Pelasgians. 



14 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. 1 

the civilization, the arts, and even the religion of the Greeks, all came from 
the land of the Mle. These tales found easy behevers ; they were carried 
back to Greece, and repeated with various modifications and embelhsh- 
ments ; and thus, no doubt, arose the greater number of the traditions 
respecting Egyptian colonies in Greece. 

§ 7. Although we may therefore reject with safety the traditions re- 
specting these Egyptian colonies, two are of so much celebrity that they 
cannot be passed over entirely in an account of the early ages of Greece* 
Attica is said to have been indebted for the arts of civilized life to Cecrops, 
a native of Sais in Egypt. To him is ascribed the foundation of the city 
of Athens, the institution of marriage, and the introduction of rehgious 
rites and ceremonies. The AcropoUs or citadel of Athens, to which the 
original city was confined, continued to bear the name of Cecropia even in 
later times. Argos, in like manner, is said to have been founded by the 
Egyptian Danaus, who fled to Greece with his fifty daughters to escape 
from the persecution of their suitors, the fifty sons of his brother ^gyptus. 
The Egyptian stranger was elected king by the natives, and from him the 
tribe of the Danai derived their name, which Homer frequently uses as a 
general appellation for the Greeks. The only fact which lends any coun- 
tenance to the existence of an Egyptian colony in Greece is the discovery 
of the remains of two pyramids at no great distance from Argos ; but this 
form of building is not confined to Egypt. Pyramids are found in India, 
Babylonia, and Mexico, and may therefore have been erected by the early 
inhabitants of Greece independently of any connection with Egypt. 

§ 8. Another colony, not less celebrated and not more credible than the 
two just mentioned, is the one led from Asia by Pelops, from whom the 
southern peninsula of Greece derived its name of Peloponnesus. Pelops 
is usually represented as a native of Sipylus in Phrygia, and the son of the 
wealthy King Tantalus. By means of his riches, which he brought with 
him into Greece, he became king of Mycen^ and the founder of a power- 
ful dynasty, one of the most renowned in the Heroic Age of Greece. 
From him was descended Agamemnon, who led the Grecian host against 
Troy. 

§ 9. The case is different with the Phoenician colony, which is said to 
have been founded by Cadmus at Thebes in Bceotia. We have decisive 
evidence that the Phoenicians planted colonies at an early period in the 
islands of Greece ; and it is only natural to believe that they also settled 
upon the shores of the mainland. Whether there was such a person as 
the Phoenician Cadmus, and whether he built the town called Cadmea, 
which afterwards became the citadel of Thebes, as the ancient legends 
relate, cannot be determined ; but, setting aside all tradition on the sub- 
ject, there is one fact which proves indisputably an early intercourse be- 
tween Phoenicia and Greece. It was to the Phoenicians that the Greeks 
were indebted for the art of writing ; for both the names and the forms o 



Chaf.IJ the earliest inhabitants. 15 

the letters in the Greek alphabet are evidently derived from the Phoe- 
nician. With this exception the Oriental strangers left no permanent 
trace of their settlements ia Greece ; and the population of the comitry 
continued to be essentially Grecian, uncontaminated by any foreign ele- 
ments. 




Paris, from the Jlginetan Sculptures.* 



* In the Glyptothek at Munich. — Ed. 



HISTOBY OF GREECE. [ChAP. II. 




Ajax, from the ^ginetan Sculptures.* 



CHAPTER n. 

THE GKECIAN HEROES. 

f 1. Mythical Character o;" the Heroic Age. ^ 2. Hercules. § 3. Theseus. § 4. Mmos. 
§ 5. Voyage of the Argonauts. § 6. The Seven against Thebes and the Epigoni. § 7. The 
Trojan War as related in the Iliad. § 8. Later Additions. ^ 9. Eetum of the Grecian 
Heroes frgm Troy. § 10. Date of the Fall of Troy. ^ 11. Whether the Heroic Legends 
contain any Historical Facts. § 12. The Homeric Poems present a Picture of a Eeal 
State of Society. 

§ 1. It was universally believed by the Greeks, that their native land 
was in the earlier ages ruled by a noble race of beings, possessing a super- 
human though not a divine nature, and superior to ordinary men in 
strength of body and greatness of soul. These are the Heroes of Grecian 
mythology, whose exploits and adventures form the great mine from which 
the Greeks derived inexhaustible materials for their poetry, — 

" Presenting Thebes or Pelops' line, 
Or the tale of Troy divine." 

According to mythical chronology the Heroic Age constitutes a period 
of about two hundred years, from the first appearance of the Hellenes in 
Thessaly to the return of the Greeks from Troy. Since the legends of 
this period belong to mythology and not to history, they find their proper 

* In the Glyptothek at Munich. — Ed. 



Chap, n.] THE GRECIAN HEROES. 17 

place in a work devoted to the former subject. But some of them are so 
closely hiterwoven with the historical traditions of Greece that it is impos- 
sible to pass them by entirely. Among the heroes three stand conspicu- 
ously forth : Hercules, the national hero of Greece ; Theseus, the hero of 
Attica ; and Minos, king of Crete, the principal founder of Grecian law 
and civihzation. 

§ 2. Of aU the Heroic families none was more celebrated than that of 
Danaus, king of Argos. la the fifth generation we find it personified in 
Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, whom Zeus wooed in a shower of gold, 
and became by her the father of Perseus, the celebrated conqueror of 
Medusa. Perseus was the ancestor of Hercules, being the great-grand- 
father both of Alcmena and of her husband Amphitryon. Accorduig to 
the well-known legend, Zeus, enamored of Alcmena, assumed the fonn 
of Amphitryon in his absence, and became by her the father of Hercules. 
To the son thus begotten Zeus had destined the sovereignty of Ai'gos ; but 
the jealous anger of Hera (Juno) raised up against him an opponent and 
a master in the person of Eixrystheus, another descendant of Perseus, at 
whose bidding the greatest of all heroes was to achieve those wonderful 
labors which fiUed the whole world with his fame. In these are reahzed, 
on a magnificent scale, the two great objects of ancient heroism, — the 
destruction of physical and moral evil, and the acquisition of wealth and 
power. Such, for instance, are the labors in which he destroys the terri- 
ble Nemean hon and Lernean hydra, carries off the girdle of Ares from 
Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons, and seizes the golden apples of the 
Hesperides, guarded by a hundred-headed dragon. At the same time, 
however, we perceive, as is the case with all the Grecian heroes, that the 
extraordinary endowments of Hercules did not preserve him from human 
weakness and error, and the consequent expiation which they demanded. 
After slaying in his ungovernable rage his friend and companion, Iphitus, 
the son of Eurytus, he is seized with sickness, becomes the slave of the 
Lydian queen, Omphale, devotes himself to effeminate occupations, and 
sinks mto luxury and wantonness. At a subsequent period another crime 
produces his death. The rape of lole, the daughter of the same Eurytus 
whose son he had slain, incites his wife Deianira to send him the fatal 
shirt, poisoned with the blood of the centaur, Nessus. Unable to endure 
the torments it occasions, he repairs to Mount Q^^ta, which becomes the 
scene of his apotheosis. As he lies on the funeral pile there erected for 
him by Hyllus, his eldest son by Deianira, a cloud descends and bears him 
off amidst thunder and lightning to Olympus, where he is received among 
the immortal gods, and, being reconciled to Hera, receives in marriage her 
daughter Hebe, the goddess of youth. 

§ 3. Theseus was the son of ^geus, king of Athens, and of -^thra, 
daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen. On his return to Athens -^geus 
left ^thra behind him at Troezen, enjoining her not to send theu' sou to 
3 



18 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. JL 

Athens till he was strong enough to lift from beneath a stone of prodigious 
weight his father's sword and sandals, which would serve as tokens of rec- 
ognition. Theseus, when grown to manhood, accomplished the appointed 
feat with ease, and took the road to Athens over the Isthmus of Corinth, 
a journey beset with many dangers from robbers, who barbarously muti- 
lated or killed the unhappy wayfarers who feU into their hands. But 
Theseus overcame them aU, and arrived in safety at Athens, where he was 
recognized by -<Egeus, and declared his successor. Among his many mem- 
orable achievements the most famous was his deliverance of Athens from 
the frightful tribute imposed upon it by Minos for the murder of his son. 
This consisted of seven youths and seven maidens, whom the Athenians 
were compelled to send every nine years to Crete, there to be devoured 
by the Minotaur, a monster with a human body and a bull's head, which 
Minos kept concealed in an inextricable labyrinth. The third ship was 
already on the point of sailing with its cargo of innocent victims, when 
Theseus offered to go with them, hoping to put an end for ever to the 
horrible tribute. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, became enamored of 
the hero, and having supphed him with a clew to trace the windings of the 
labyrinth, Theseus succeeded in killing the monster, and in tracking his 
way out of the mazy lair. As he returned towards Athens, the pilot for- 
got to hoist the white sail, agreed on as the signal of success, in place of 
the black sail usually carried by the vessel which bore that melancholy 
tribute, whereupon JEgeus, thinking that his son had perished, threw him- 
self into the sea which afterwards bore his name. 

Theseus, having now ascended the throne, proceeded to lay the founda- 
tions of the future greatness of Athens. He united into one political body 
the twelve independent states into which Cecrops had divided Attica, and 
made Athens the capital of the new kingdom. In order to accommodate 
the increased population of the city, he covered with buildings the ground 
lying to the south of the Cecropian citadel ; and in commemoration of the 
union, he instituted the festivals of the Panathen^a and Synoikia in honor 
of Athena (Minerva), the patron goddess of the city. He then divided 
the citizens into three classes ; namely, EupatridcB, or nobles, Geomori, 
or husbandmen, and Demiurgi, or artisans. He is further said to have 
established a constitutional government, retaining in his own hands only 
certain definite powers and privileges, so that he was regarded in a later 
age as the founder of civil equality at Athens. He also extended the 
Attic territory to the confines of Peloponnesus, and established the games 
in honor of Poseidon (Neptune), which were celebrated on the isthmus. 
He subsequently engaged in a variety of adventures in conjunction with 
Hercules and Peirithous, king of the Lapithge. But on his return to Athens 
after these exploits, the Athenians refused to obey him any longer, where- 
upon he retired to the island of Scyros, an i was there murdered through 
*he treachery of King Lycomedes. 



Chap. II.] THE GRECIAN HEROES. 19 

§ 4 Minos, king of Crete, whose story is connected with that of The- 
seus, appears, Kke him, the representative of an historical and civil state 
of life. Minos is said to have received the laws of Crete immediately 
from Zeus ; and traditions uniformly represent him as king of the sea. 
Possessing a numerous fleet, he reduced the surrounding islands, especially 
the Cyclades, under his dominion, and cleared the sea of pirates. A later 
legend recognizes two heroes of the name of Minos ; one, the son of Zeus 
and Europa, who after his death became a judge in the lower world, and 
the other his grandson, who held the dominion of the sea. 

§ 5. If, turning from the exploits of individual heroes, we examine 
the enterprises undertaken by a collective body of chiefs, we shall again 
find three expeditions more celebrated than the rest. These are the 
Voyage of the Argonauts, the War of the Seven against Thebes, and the 
Siege of Troy. 

In the Voyage of the Argonauts the ^oHds play the principal part. 
Pelias, a descendant of -^olus, had deprived his half-brother JEson of his 
dominion over the kingdom of lolcus in Thessaly. When Jason, son of 
^son, had grown up to manhood, he appeared before his uncle and de- 
manded back his throne, -^son consented only on condition that Jason 
should first fetch the golden fleece from -^a,* a region in the farthest East, 
niled by ^etes, offspring of the Sun-god. Here it was preserved in the 
grove of Ares (Mars), suspended upon a tree, and under the guardian- 
ship of a sleepless dragon. 

The Argo, a ship built for the expedition, gave its name to the adven- 
turers, who, under the conduct of Jason, embarked in the harbor of lolcus, 
for the purpose of bringing back the fleece. They consisted of the most 
renowned heroes of the time. Hercules and Theseus are mentioned among 
them, as weU as the principal leaders in the Trojan war. Jason, however, 
is the central figure and the real hero of the enterprise. When he and his 
companions arrived, after many adventures, at -^a, King ^etes promised 
to deUver to him the golden fleece, provided he yoked two fire-breathing 
oxen with brazen feet, ploughed with them a piece of land, sowed in the 
furrows thus made the remainder of the teeth of the dragon slain by Cad- 
mus, and vanquished the armed men that would start from his seed. Here 
also, as in the legend of Theseus, love played a prominent part. Medea, 
the daughter of ^etes, who was skilled in magic and supernatural arts, 
furnished Jason with the means of accomplishing the labors imposed 
upon him ; and as her father still delayed to surrender the fleece, she cast 
the dragon asleep during the night, seized the fleece, and set sail in the 
Argo with her beloved Jason and his companions, ^etes pursued them ; 
but after many long and strange wanderings, they at length reached lolcus 
ai safety. 

* Identified by the Greeks of a later age with Colchis. 



iO HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap II 

§ 6. In the Heroic Age Thebes was abeady one of the principal cities 
of Greece. Towards the close of this period it became the scene of the 
last struggles of a fated race, whose legendary history is so full of human 
crime, of the obscure warnings of the gods, and of the inevitable march 
of fate, as to render it one of the favorite subjects of the tragic poets of 
Athens. 

Lai'us, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle to beget no children, 
or he would be murdered by his son. He neglected the prediction, but to 
obviate its eifects caused his son (Edipus by Jocasta to be exposed to 
death. The infant, however, Avas saved and carried to Corinth, where 
King Polybus reared him as his own. Grown up to manhood, and stung 
by the reproaches which he heai-d cast upon his birth, CEdipus consulted 
the Delphic oracle representing his parentage, and was warned by it not 
to return to his native land, as he was there destined to slay his father and 
commit incest with his mother. CEdipus, beheving Polybus to be his real 
father, now avoided Corinth and took the road to Thebes, but by so doing 
incurred the very fate which he sought to avoid. Meeting LaVus in a nar- 
row road, he slew him in a quarrel, and then, JDroceeding to Thebes, obtained 
the hand of his mother, Queen Jocasta, promised as a reward to the man who 
should solve a riddle propounded by the Sphinx, a monster which had long 
infested the land, but which was driven to slay itself by the solution of its 
enigma. Two sons and two daughters were the fruit of the incestuous 
marriage. These horrors drew down a pestilence on the land, and in 
order to avert it, an oracle commanded the banishment of the murderer of 
La'ius. The inquiries instituted to discover the guilty man revealed the 
fatal truth. Jocasta hangs herself; CEdipus, unable any longer to bear 
the hght of day, puts out his eyes, and being expelled, from the city by his 
two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, pronounces upon them a curse which 
speedily takes effect. In a struggle for undivided dominion, Polynices is 
driven out of Thebes by his brother, and, repairing to Ai-gos, obtains the 
aid of King Adrastus to reinstate him in his rights. Besides that monarch 
and Polynices five other heroes join the expedition, making the confederacy 
known under the name of the " Seven against Thebes." All of them 
except Adrastus are slain, whUst Polynices and Eteocles fall by each 
other's hands. 

Ten years later the sons of the allied princes undertali:e another expe- 
dition against Thebes in order to avenge their fathers' fate, hence caUed 
the war of the Epigoni, or the Descendants. It proved successful. 
Thebes was taken and razed to the ground after the greater part of its 
inhabitants had left the city on the advice of the prophet Tiresias. 

§ 7. In mythological chronology the war of the Epigoni immediately 
precedes the expedition against Troy, whose legend forms the termination 
of the Heroic age. While it was the last, it was also the greatest of all 
the Heroic achievements. It formed the subject of innumerable epic poems, 
and has been unmortahzed by the genius of Homer. 



ChaF. n.] THE GRECIAN HEROES. 21 

Paris, son of Priam, king of Ilium or Troy, abused the hospitality" of 
Menelaus, king of Sparta, by carrying off his wife, Helen, the most beau- 
tiful woman of the age. All the Grecian princes looked upon the outrage 
as one committed against themselves. Responding to the call of Mene- 
laus, they assemble in ai*ms, elect his brother, Agamemnon, king of My- 
cense, leader of the expedition, and sail across the JEgean in nearly 
twelve hundred ships to recover the faithless fair one. Several of the 
confederate heroes excel Agamemnon in fame. Among them Achilles, 
chief of the Thessahan Myrmidons, stands preeminent in strength, beauty, 
and valor, whilst Odysseus, kmg of Ithaca, surpasses all the rest in the men- 
tal quahties of counsel, subtilty, and eloquence. Thus, though by opposite 
endowments, these two heroes form the centre of the group. Next to 
them we observe the aged Nestor, king of Pylus, distinguished for his 
wisdom and experience ; the valiant Diomedes, king of Argos, son of 
Tydeus, slain at Thebes, and one of the Epigoni ; the Telamonian Adas 
(Ajax) of Salamis, who, though somewhat heavy and unwieldy, is next to 
Achilles in person and fighting power ; and lastly, Idomeneus of Crete, a 
grandson of Minos. 

Among the Trojans, Hector, one of the sons of Priam, is most distin- 
guished for heroic qualities, and forms a strikmg contrast to his hand- 
some but effeminate brother, Paris. Next to Hector in valor stands ^neas, 
son of Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus). Even the gods take part in the 
contest, encouragmg their favorite heroes, and sometimes fighting by their 
side or in their stead. 

It is not till the tenth year of the war that Eium yields to the inevitable 
decree of fate, and it is this year which forms the subject of the Eiad. 
Achilles, offended by Agamemnon, abstains from the war, and even en- 
treats his mother Thetis to obtain from Zeus (Jove) victoiy for the Tro- 
jans. In his absence the Greeks are no match for Hector. Tlie Tro- 
jans drive them back into their camp and are already settmg fire to their 
ships, when AchiUes gives his armor to his friend Patroclus, and allows 
him to charge at the head of the Myrmidons. Patroclus repulses the 
Trojans from the ships, but the god ApoUo is against him, and he falls 
under the spear of Hector. Desii'e to avenge the death of his friend 
proves more powerful in the breast of Achilles than anger against Aga- 
memnon. He appears again ki the field in new and gorgeous armor, 
foi'ged for him by the god Hephgestos (Vulcan) at the prayer of Thetis. 
The Trojans fly before him, and although Achilles is aware that his own 
death must speedily follow that of the Trojan hero, he slays him in single 
combat. 

■§ 8. The Diad closes with the burial of Hector. The death of Achilles 
and the capture of Troy were related in later poems, as well as his victo- 
ries over PenthesUea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of JEthi- 
opia. The hero of so many achievements perishes by an arrow shot by 



22 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. H 

the unwarlike Paris, but directed by the hand of Apollo. The noblest 
combatants had now fallen on either side, and force of arms had proved 
miable to accomplish what stratagem at length effects. It is Odysseus 
(Ulysses) who now steps into the foreground and becomes the real con- 
queror of Troy. By his advice a wooden horse is buUt, in whose inside 
he and other heroes conceal themselves. The infatuated Trojans admit 
the horse within their walls. In the dead of night the Greeks rush out 
and open the gates to their comrades. Hium is delivered over to the 
sword, and its glory sinks in ashes. 

§ 9. The return of the Grecian leaders from Troy forms another series 
of poetical legends. Several meet with tragical ends. Agamemnon is 
murdered, on his arrival at Mycense, by his wife, Clytaemnestra, and her 
paramour, ^gisthus. Diomedes, who also finds his house defiled, is driven 
from Argos and settles in Italy. But of these wanderings the most cele- 
brated and interesting are those of Odysseus (Ulysses), which form the 
subject of the Odyssey. After twenty years' absence he arrives at length 
in Ithaca, where he slays the numerous suitors who devoured his substance 
and contended for the hand of his wife, Penelope. 

§ 10. It has been already stated that the Trojan war closes the Heroic 
age, and the poet Hesiod relates that the divine race of heroes was ex- 
hausted before the walls of Thebes and on the plain of Lium. As the 
Trojan war was thus supposed to mark an epoch in Grecian history, great 
pains were taken in the later periods of antiquity to fix its date. That of 
Eratosthenes, a grammarian at Alexandria, enjoyed most credit, which 
placed the fall of that city four hundred and seven years before the first 
Olympiad, and consequently in the year 1184 b. c. 

§ 11. In relating the legends of the Heroic Age we have made no at- 
tempt to examine their origin, or to deduce from them any historical facts. 
All such attempts are in our opinion vain and fruitless. Whether there 
were real persons of the name of Hercules, Theseus, and Minos can neither 
be affirmed nor denied. Our only reason for believing in their existence 
is the tradition of the Greeks respecting them ; and knowing how worth- 
less is tradition, especially when handed down by a rude and unlettered 
people, we cannot accept the Grecian heroes as real personages upon such 
evidence. It has been supposed by many modern writers, that the won- 
derful story of the Argonauts took its rise from the adventurous voyages 
of early Greek mariners to the coasts of the Euxine ; that the expeditions 
of the " Seven against Thebes " and their descendants represented in a 
legendary form an actual contest between Argos and Thebes ; and that 
the Homeric tale of the Trojan war was based upon historical facts. But 
for such statements we have no authority. They are at the best only prob- 
able conjectures. "While, therefore, we do not deny the possibihty of an 
historical Trojan war, we cannot accept it as a fact supported by trustwor* 
thy evidence, since Homer is our sole authority for it. 



Chap, n.] the GRECIAN heroes. 23 

§ 12. Although the Homeric poems cannot be received as a rtjcord of 
historical persons and events, yet they present a valuable picture of the 
institutions and manners of a real state of society. Homer lived in an 
age in which antiquarian research was unknown ; his poems were ad- 
dressed to unlettered hearers, and any description of life and manners 
which did not correspond to the state of things around them would have 
been unintelligible and uninteresting to his contemporaries. In addition 
to this, there is an artless simplicity in his descriptions which forces upon 
every reader the conviction that the poet drew his pictures from real life, 
and not from an antiquated past or from imaginary ideas of his own. The 
description which he gives of the government, manners, society, and cus- 
toms of his age demands our attentive consideration, since with it our 
knowledge of the Greek people conmiences. 



24 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. Ill 




Gate of Lions at Mycenae. 



CHAPTER III. 



STATE OF S0CIP:TY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



1 1. Political Condition of Greece. — The Kings. § 2. The BouM, or Council of Chiefs. 
§ 3. The Ag&ra, or General Assembly of Freemen. § 4. The Condition of common 
Freemen and Slaves. § 5. State of Social and Moral Feeling. § 6. Simplicity of Man- 
ners. § 7. Advances made in Civilization. § 8. Commerce and the Arts. § 9. The 
Physical Sciences. § 10. The Art of War. 

§ 1. In the Heroic Age Greece was already divided into a number ot 
independent states, each governed by its own king. The authority of the 
king was not limited by any laws ; his power resembled that of the pa- 
triarchs in the Old Testament ; and for the exercise of it he was respon- 
sible only to Zeus, and not to his people. It was from the Olymj^ian god 
that his ancestors had received the supremacy, and he transmitted it, as a 
divine inheritance, to liis son. He had the sole command of his people ia 
wax, he administered to them justice in peace, and he offered up on their 
behalf prayers and sacrifices to the gods. He was the general, judge, and 
priest of his people. They looked up to him with reverence as a being of 
divine descent and divine appointment; but at the same time he was 
obliged to possess personal superiority, both of body and mind, to keep 
alive this feeling in his subjects. It was necessary that he should be 
brave in war, wise in counsel, and eloquent in debate. If a kmg became 
weak in body or feeble in mind, he could not easily retain his posi- 
ticai ; but as long as his personal qualities commanded the respect of 
his subjects, they quietly submitted to acts of violence and caprice. An 
ample domain was assigned to him for his support, and he received fr&- 
guent presents to avert his enmity and gain his favor. 



Chap. III.] SOCIETY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 25 

Althougli the king was not restrained in the exercise of his power by 
any positive laws, there were, even in the Heroic Age, two bodies which 
daust practically have limited his authority, and which became in republi- 
can Greece the sole depositai-ies of political power. These were the JSouli, 
or council of chiefs, and the Agora, or general assembly of freemen. 

§ 2. The king was surrounded by a limited number of nobles or chiefs, 
to wliom the title of Basileus was given, as well as to the monarch himself. 
Like the king, they traced their descent from the gods, and formed his 
BouU, or Comicil, to which he announced the resolutions he had already 
foi'med, and from which he asked advice. The BouU possessed no veto 
upon the measures of the king, and far less could it originate any measure 
itself This is strikingly shown by the submissive manner in which Nes- 
tor tenders his advice to Agamenanon, to be adopted or rejected, as the 
" king of men " might choose,* and by the description which Homer fre- 
quently gives of the meetings of the gods in Olympus, which are evidently 
taken from similar meetings of men upon earth. In heaven, Zeus, like 
the Homeric king, presides in the councils of the gods and hstens to their 
advice, but forms his own resolutions, which he then communicates to them. 
§ 3. When the king had announced his determination to the Council, he 
proceeded with his nobles to the Agora. The king occupied the most 
important seat in the assembly, with the nobles by his side, while the 
people sat in a circle around them. The king opened the meeting by 
announcing his intentions, and the nobles were then allowed to address the 
people. But no one else had the right to speak ; no vote was taken ; the 
people simply listened to the debate between the chiefs ; and the assembly 
served only as a means for promulgating the intentions of the king. It is 
true that this assembly formed a germ, out of which the sovereignty of the 
people subsequently sprang ; but in the Heroic Age the king was the only 
person who possessed any poUtical power, and Homer expresses the gen- 
eral feeling of his time ia the memorable hnes, — " The rule of many is not 
a good thing : let us have only one ruler, one king, — him to whom Zeus 
has given the sceptre and the authority." f There was another important 
purpose for which the Agora was summoned. It was in the Agora that 
justice was administered by the king, sometimes alone and sometimes with 
the assistance of his nobles. It may be remarked in passing, that this pub- 
lic administration of justice must have had a powerful tendency to check 
con-uption and secure righteous judgments. 

§ 4. The Greeks in the Heroic Age were divided into the three classes 
of nobles, common freemen, J and slaves. § The nobles were raised far 
above the rest of the community in honor, power, and wealth. They were 
distinguished by their warlike prowess, their large estates, and their 

* Diad, ix. 95 - 101 . f lUad, ii. 203 - 206. 

4 



26 HISTOKY OF GREECE, [ChAP. Ill 

numerous slaves. The condition of the general mass of freemen is rarely 
mentioned. They possessed portions of land as their own property, which 
they cultivated themselves : but there was another class of poor freemen, 
called Thetes, who had no land of their own, and who worked for hire on 
the estates of others. Among the freemen we find certain professional 
persons, whose acquirements and knowledge raised them above their class, 
and procured for them the respect of the nobles. Such were the seer, the 
bard, the herald, and like-Rdse the smith and the carpenter, since in that 
age a knowledge of the mechanical arts was confined to a few. 

Slavery was not so prevalent in the Heroic Age as in republican 
Greece, and it appears in a less odious aspect. The nobles alone pos- 
sessed slaves, and they treated them with a great degree of kindness, 
which frequently secured for the masters their affectionate a,ttachment. 

§ 5. The state of social and moral feeling in the Heroic Age presents 
both bright and dark features. Among the Greeks, as among every 
people which has just emerged from barbarism, the family relations are 
the grand sources of lasting union and devoted attachment. The pater- 
nal authority was highly reverenced, and nothing was so much dreaded 
as the curse of an offended father. All the members of a family or 
a clan were connected by the closest ties, and were bound to revenge 
with their united strength an injury offered to any individual of the race. 
The women were allowed greater liberty than they possessed in repub- 
lican Greece ; and to Penelope, Andromache, and other women of the 
Heroic Age, there is an interest attaching, which we never feel in the 
women of the historical period. The wife occupied a station of great dig- 
nity and influence in the family, but was purchased by her husband from 
her parents by valuable presents,* a custom which prevailed among the 
ancient Jews and the barbarous nations of Germany. In the Heroic Age, 
as in other early stages of society, we find the stranger treated with gen- 
erous hospitahty. The chief welcomes him to his house, and does not 
inquire his name nor the object of his journey till he has placed before 
him his best cheer. If the stranger comes as a suppHant, he has a still 
greater claim upon his host, — although this tie may expose the latter to 
difficulty and danger, and may even bring upon him the hostility of a more 
powerful neighbor ; for Jove punishes without mercy the man who dis- 
regards the prayer of a suppliant. 

The three facts we have mentioned — the force of the family relations, 
hospitality to the stranger, and protection to the supphant — form the 
bright features in the social and moral feelings of the age. We now turn 
to the darker side of the picture. 

The poems of Homer represent a state of society in which the protec- 
tion of law is practically unknown. The chief who cannot defend himself 



* Called etbva, or e8va. 



Chap. III.] SOCIETY OF THE HEKOIC AGE. 27 

is plundered and maltreated by his more powerful neighbor. The occupa- 
tion of a pirate is reckoned honorable ; homicides are of frequent occur- 
rence ; and war is conducted with the most ferocious cruelty. Quarter is 
rarely given ; the fallen foe is stripped of his armor, which becomes the 
spoil of his conqueror, and if the naked corpse remains in the power of the 
latter, it is cast out to beasts of prey. The poet ascribes to his greatest 
heroes savage brutahties. Achilles sacrifices twelve human victims on the 
tomb of Patroclus, and drags the corpse of Hector around the walls of 
Troy, while the Greek chiefs pierce it with their spears. 

§ 6. The society of the Heroic Age was marked by simplicity of manners. 
The kings and nobles did not consider it derogatory to their diirnity to acqube 
skill in the manual arts. Ulysses is represented as building his own bed- 
chamber and constructing his own raft, and he boasts of being an excellent 
mower and plouglunan. Like Esau, who made savory meat for his father 
Isaac, the Heroic chiefs prepared their own meals and prided themselves 
on their skUl in cookery. Kings and private persons partook of the same 
food, which was of the simplest kind. Beef, mutton, and goat's flesh were 
the ordinary meats, and cheese, flour, and sometimes fruits, also formed part 
of the banquet. Bread was brought on in baskets, and the guests were 
supphed with wine diluted with water. Before drinking, some of the wine 
was poTired on the ground as a libation to the gods, and the guests then 
pledged each other with their cups. But their entertainments were never 
disgi'aced by intemperance, like those of our Northern ancestors. The 
enjoyment of the banquet was heightened by the song and the dance, and 
the chiefs took more dehght in the lays of the minstrel than in the exciting 
influence of the wine. 

The wives and daughters of the chiefs, in Kke manner, did not deem it 
beneath them to discharge various duties which were afterwards regarded 
as menial. Not only do we find them constantly employed in weaving, 
spinning, and embroidery, but, like the daughters of the patriarchs, they 
fetch water from the weU and assist their slaves in washing garments in 
the river. 

§ 7. Although the Heroic Age is strongly marked by martial ferocity 
and simplicity of habits, it would be an error to regard it as one essentially 
rude and barbarous. On the contrary, the Greeks in this early period had 
aheady made considerable advances in civilization, and had successfully 
cultivated many of the arts which contribute to the comfort and refine- 
ment of life. Instead of living in scattered villages like the barbarians of 
Gaul and Germany, they were collected in fortified towns, which were sur- 
rounded by walls and adorned with palaces and temples. The houses of 
the nobles were magnificent and costly, glittering with gold, silver, and 
bronze, while the nobles themselves were clothed in elegant garments and 
protected by highly-wrought armor. From the Phoenician merchants they 
obtained the finest productions of the Sidonian loom, as well as tin, iron, 



28 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. Ill 

and electram. They travelled with rapidity in chariots drawn by high- 
bred steeds, and they navigated the sea with ease in fifty-oared galleys. 
Property in land was transmitted from father to son ; agriculture was ex- 
tensively practised, and vineyards carefully cultivated. It is true that 
Homer may have occasionally di'awn upon his imagination in his brilliant 
pictures of the palaces of the chiefs and of their mode of hving, but the 
main features must have been taken from life, and we possess even in the 
present day memorials of the Heroic Age which strikingly attest its grand- 
eur. The remains of Mycenas and Thyns and the emissaries of the lake 
Copais belong to this period. The massive rains of these two cities, and 
the sculptured hons on the gate of Mycenae, still excite the wonder of the 
beholder.* The emissai'ies or tunnels which the inhabitants of Orchome- 
nus constructed to carry off the waters of the lake Copais, in Boeotia, 
are even more striking proofs of the civilization of the age. A people who 
felt the necessity of such works, and who possessed sufficient industry and 
skill to execute them, must have already made great advances in social 
life.t 

§ 8. Commerce, however, was little cultivated, and was not much 
esteemed. It was deemed more honorable for a man to enrich himself by 
robbery and piracy than by the arts of peace. The trade of the Mediter- 
ranean was then exclusively in the hands of the Phoenicians, who ex- 
changed the commodities of the East for the landed produce and slaves of 
the Greek chiefs. Commerce was carried on by barter ; for coined money 
is not mentioned in the poems of Homer. Statuary was already culti- 
vated in this age, as we see from the remains of Mycenas, already men- 
tioned ; and although no paintings are spoken of in Homer, yet his descrip- 
tions of the woi'ks of embroidery prove that his contemporaries must have 
been acquainted with the art of design. Whether the Greeks were 
acquainted at this early period with the art of writing is a question that 
has given rise to much dispute, and which will demand our attention when 
we come to speak of the origin of the Homeric poems. Poetry, however, 
was cultivated with success, though yet confined to epic strains, or the nar- 
ration of the exploits and adventures of the Heroic chiefs. The bard sung 
his own song, and was always received with welcome and honor m the 
palaces of the nobles. 

§ 9. In the state of society already described, men had not yet begun to 
study those phenomena of nature which form the basis of the physical 
sciences. They conceived the earth to be a plane surface surrounded by 
an ever-flowing river called Oceanus, from which every other river and 
sea derived then* waters. The sky was regarded as a solid vault sup- 
ported by Atlas, who kept heaven and earth asunder. Their geographical 

* See drawings on pp. 9, 24. 

t One of these tunnels is nearly four English miles in length, with numerous shafts let 
down into it. One shaft is about 150 feet deep. 



Chap. HI.] 



SOCIETY OF THE HEBOIC AGE. 



29 



knowledge was confined to the shores of Greece and Asia Minor and the 
principal islands of the ^gean Sea. Beyond those limits all was uncer- 
tain and obscure. Italy appears to have been unknown to Homer, and 
Sicily he peoples with the fabulous Cyclops. Libya, Egypt, and Phoe- 
nicia were known only by vague hearsay, while the Euxine is not men- 
tioned at all.* 

§ 10. In the battles of the Heroic Age, as depicted in the poems of 
Homer, the chiefs are the only miportant combatants, while the people are 
introduced as an almost useless mass, frequently put to rout by the prowess 
of a single hero. The chief is mounted in a war-chariot drawn by two 
horsey, and stands by the side of his charioteer, who is frequently a friend. 
He carries into battle two long spears, and wears a long sword and a short 
dagger ; his person is protected by shield, helmet, breastplate, and greaves. 
In the wars, as in the political system, of the Heroic Age, the chiefs are 
everything and the people nothing. 



* This is rather too strongly expressed. Phoenicia and Egypt were doubtless well knovB 
to the Greeks in the Heroic Age. — Ed. 




Greek Warrior. 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. IV 




Heroulea and Bull. (From a bas-relief in the Vatican.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

RETXJRN OP THE HERACLEID^ INTO PELOPONNESUS, AND FOUNDATION 
OF THE EARLIEST GREEK COLONIES. 



$ 1. The Mythical Character of the Narrative of these Events. § 2. Migration of the Bceo- 
tians from Thessaly into Boeotia. § 3. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. 
4 4. The Legendary Account of this Event. The Invasion. § 5. The Legendary Ac- 
count continued. The Division of Peloponnesus among the Conquerors. § 6. Eemarfcs 
upon the Legendary Account. § 7. Foundation of the Greek Colonies in Asia Minor. 
§ 8. The jEolic Colonies. ^ 9. The Ionic Colonies. § 10. The Doric Colonies. § 11. Col- 
onization of Crete by the Dorians. § 12. Conclusion of the Mythical Age. 

§ 1. At the commencement of Grecian history in the first 01}Tnpiad we 
find the greater part of Peloponnesus occupied by tribes of Dorian con- 
querors, and the western shores of Asia Minor covered by Greek colonies. 
The time at which these settlements were made is quite uncertain. They 
belong to a period long antecedent to all historical records, and were known 
to the Greeks of a later age by tradition alone. The accounts given of 
them are evidently fabulous, but at the same time these stories are 
founded upon a basis of historical truth. That Peloponnesus was at 
some early period conquered by the Dorians, and that Greek colonies 
were planted in Asia, are facts which admit of no dispute ; but whether 
the conquest of Peloponnesus and the colonization of Asia Minor took' 
place in the manner and at the time described by the ancient legends, is a 
very different question. These legends are not entitled to more credit 
than those of Hercules and Theseus, although they are proved in these 



Chap IV.] return of the heracleid^. 31 

particular cases to have been fashioned out of real events ; for, as -we have 
already said, it is impossible to separate the historical facts from the sub- 
sequent embelhshments. 

§ 2. Before relating the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians, we 
must say a few words respecting an earlier, though less celebrated, migra- 
tion, namely, that of the Boeotians from Thessaly into Boeotia. The Thes- 
salians were a rude and uncivilized race, who originally dwelt in the dis- 
trict of Epirus, called Thesprotia, from which they migrated into the 
country named after them, Thessaly. These ThessaUan conquerors either 
subdued or expelled the original inhabitants of the country. The Boeo- 
tians, who inhabited the fertile district of -^olis, in the centre of Thessaly, 
wandered southwards into the country called after them Boeotia, where 
they drove out in their turn the ancient inhabitants of the land. Accord- 
ing to mythical chronology this event happened in 1124 B. c, or sixty 
years after the fall of Troy. 

§ 3. The conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians is said to have 
taken place twenty years after the expulsion of the Boeotians from Thes- 
saly, and was accordingly placed in 1104 B. c. We have already seen 
that these dates are of no historical value ; and the Dorian conquest of 
Peloponnesus probably took place after the time of Homer, since neither 
in the Ihad nor in the Odyssey do we find any traces of Dorians in Pelo- 
ponnesus. The Dorians were a warhke tribe in Northern Greece, who 
had frequently changed their homes, and who at length settled in a moun- 
tainous district between Thessaly, Locris, and Phocis. They now appear 
for the first time in Grecian history. They had no share in the glories of 
the Heroic Age ; their name does not occur in the Iliad, and they are only 
once mentioned in the Odyssey as a small portion of the many tribes of 
Crete : but they were destined to form in historical times one of the most 
important elements of the Greek nation. Issuing from their mountain 
fastnesses, they overran the greater part of Peloponnesus, destroyed the 
ancient Achfean monarchies, and expelled or reduced to subjection the 
original inhabitants of the land, of which they became the undisputed mas- 
ters. This brief statement contains all that we know for certain respect- 
ing this celebrated event. We now proceed to give the mythical account. 

§ 4. The Dorians were led to the conquest of Peloponnesus by the 
Heracleida3, or descendants of the mighty hero, Hercules. Hence this 
migration is called the Return of the Heracleidaj. The children of Hei'- 
cules had long been fugitives upon the earth. They had made many 
attempts to regain possession of the dominions in the Peloponnesus of 
which their great sire had been deprived by Eurystheus, but hitherto 
without success. In their last attempt, Hyllus, the son of Hercules, had 
perished in single combat Avith Echemus of Tegea ; and the Heracleida3 
had become bound by a solemn compact to renounce their enterprise for a 
hundred years. Tliis period had now expired ; and the great-grand- 



32 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. IV. 

sons of Hyllus — Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus — resolved to 
make a fresh attempt to recover their birthright. They were assisted in 
the enterprise by the Dorians. This peoj)le espoused their cause in con- 
sequence of the aid which Hercules luimseh" had rendered to the Dorian 
king, JEgimius, when the latter was hard pressed in the contest with th6 
Lapithge. The invaders were warned by an oracle not to enter Pelopon- 
nesus by the Isthmus of Corinth, but across the mouth of the Corinthian 
Gulf. The mhabitants of the northern coast of the gulf were favorable to 
their enterprise. Oxylus, king of the ^tohans, became their guide ; and 
the Ozolian Locrians granted them a port for building their fleet, from 
which memorable circumstance the harbor was soon afterwards called 
ISTaupactus.* Here Aristodemus was struck by lightning and died, leav- 
ing twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles ; but his remaining brothers 
crossed over the gulf in safety, landed in Achaia, and marched against 
Tisamenus, son of Orestes, then the most powerful monarch in Pelo[)on- 
nesus. A single battle decided the contest. Tisamenus was defeated, and 
retired with a portion of his Achaean subjects to the northern coast of 
Peloponnesus, then occupied by the lonians. He expelled the lonians, 
and took possession of the country, which continued henceforth to be in- 
habited by the Achgeans, and to be called after them. The lonians with- 
drew to Attica, and the greater part of them afterwards emigi-ated to Asia 
Minor. 

§ 5. The Heracleidae and the Dorians now divided between them the 
dominions of Tisamenus and of the other Achaean princes. The kingdom 
of Elis was given to Oxylus as a recompense for his services as their 
guide ; and it was agreed that Temenus, Cresphontes, and the infant 
sons of Aristodemus should draw lots for Argos, Sparta, and Messenia. 
Axgos fell to Temenus, Sparta to the sons of Aristodemus, and Messe- 
nia to Cresphontes. 

The settlement of the conquerors in their new territories is said to have 
been made with scarcely any opposition. The Epeans, who inhabited 
Elis, submitted to Oxylus and his ^tolians after their king had been killed 
in single combat by one of the ^tolian chiefs. From this time the 
Epeans disappear from history, and their place is supphed by the Eleans, 
who are represented as descendants of the JEtolian conquerors. 

The share of Temenus originally comprehended only Argos and its im- 
mediate neighborhood ; but his sons and sons-in-laAv successively occupied 
Trcezen, Epidaurus, iEgina, Sicyon, and Phlius, which thus became Doric 
states. 

The sons of Aristodemus obtained possession of Sparta by the treason 
of an Achaean, named Philonomus, who received as a recompense the 
neighboring town and territory of Amyclss. The towns are said to have 

* From vavs, "a ship," and the root nay, which occurs in Trrjyvvfii, " fasten" "build." 



Chap. IV.] COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR. 33 

submitted without resistance, with the exception of Helos, the inhabitants 
of which were, as a punishment, reduced to slavery, thus giving rise to the 
class of slaves or serfs called Helots. 

Messenia yielded to Cresphontes without a struggle. Melanthus, who 
ruled over the country as the representative of the race of the Pylian 
Nestor, withdrew to Attica with a portion of his subjects. 

Corinth was not conquered by the Dorians till the next generation. 
One of the descendants of Hercules, named Hippotes, had put to death the 
seer Carnus, when the Heracleidae were on the point of embarkmg at Nau- 
pactus. He had in consequence been banished for ten years, and was not 
allowed to take part in the enterprise. His son, Aletes, who derived his 
name from his long wanderings, subsequently attacked Corinth at the 
head of a body of Dorians. The mighty dynasty of the Sisyphids was 
expelled, and many of the ^olian inhabitants emigrated to foreign lands. 

§ 6. Such are the main features of the legend of the Return of the 
Heracleidse. In order to make the story more striking and impressive, it 
compresses into a single epoch events which probably occupied several 
generations. It is in itself improbable that the brave Achseans quietly 
submitted to the Dorian invaders after a momentary struggle. We have, 
moreover, many indications that such was not the fact, and that it was 
only gradually and after a long-protracted contest that the Dorians became 
undisputed masters of the greater part of Peloponnesus. The imagina- 
tion loves to assign to one cause the results of numerous and different ac- 
tions. Thus in our own history we used to read that the conquest of Eng- 
land by the Normans was completed by the battle of Hastings, in which 
Harold fell, whereas we now know that the Saxons long continued to 
offer a formidable resistance to the Norman invaders, and that the latter 
did not become undisputed masters of the country for two or three gener>- 
ations. 

That portion of the tradition which makes the Dorians to have been con- 
ducted into Peloponnesus by princes of Achaean blood, may safely be rejected, 
notwithstanding the general behef of the fact in ancient times. The Dori- 
ans, as we have already seen, were poor in mythical renown ; and it would 
appear that the royal family at Sparta, though of Dorian origin, claimed 
Hercules as their founder in order to connect themselves with the ancient 
glories of the Achaean race. They thus became the representatives of 
Agamemnon and Orestes ; and in the Persian war the Spartans on one 
occasion laid claim to the supreme command of the Grecian forces in con- 
sequence of this connection. We cannot err in supposing the story to be 
a fabrication of later times, seeing that there are such obvious reasons for 
its forgery, and such inherent improbability in its truth. 

§ 7. The foundation of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor is closely con- 
nected in the legends with the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. 
There is nothing improbable in the statement, that the original inhabitants, 
5 



84 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. IV. 

who had been dislodged by the invaders, sought new homes on the coasts 
of Asia Minor ; but in this case, as in the conquest of Peloponnesus, many 
separate occurrences are unquestionably grouped into one. The stream 
of migration probably continued to flow across the -^gean from Greece to 
Asia Minor for several generations. New adventurers constantly joined 
the colonists who were already settled in the country, and thus in course 
of time the various Grreek. cities were foimded, which were spread over 
the western coast of Asia Manor, from the Propontis on the north to Lycia 
on the south. These cities were divided among the three great races of 
Cohans, lonians, and Dorians, — the -^olians occupying the northern 
portion of the coast, together with the islands of Lesbos and Tenedos, 
the lonians the central part, with the islands of Chios, Samos, and the 
Cyclades, and the Dorians the southwestern corner, with the islands of 
Rhodes and Cos. 

§ 8. The ^ohc colonies are said to have been the earliest. Achaeans, 
who had been driven out of Peloponnesus by the Dorians, were led by 
their native princes, the descendants of Orestes, to seek new homes in the 
East. In Boeotia they were joined by a part both of the original inhabit- 
ants of the country and of their Boeotian conquerors. From the latter, who 
were ^olians, the migration is called the JEolic, but sometimes also the 
Boeotian. The united body of emigrants, however, still continued under 
the command of the Achaean princes. They embarked at the port of 
Aulis, from which Agamemnon had sailed against Troy. They first oc- 
cupied Lesbos, where they founded six cities ; and a detachment of them 
settled on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, from the foot of Mount Ida to 
the mouth of the river Hermus. Smyrna was originally an -^olic city, 
but it afterwards passed into the hands of the lonians. In the historical 
times there were eleven ^oHc cities on the mainland, but of these Cyme 
was the only one which rose to importance.* 

§ 9. The Ionic migration was more important than the preceding one, 
and gave rise to some of the most flourishing cities in the Hellenic world. 
It derived its name from the lonians, who had been expelled by the 
Achaeans from their homes on the Corinthian Gutf, and had taken refuge 
in Attica. The lonians, however, appear to have formed only a small part 
of the emigrants. Inhabitants from many other parts of Greece, who had 
been driven out of their native countries, had also fled to Attica, which is 
said to have afforded protection and welcome to aU these fugitives. The 
small territory of Attica could not permanently support tliis increase of 
population ; and accordingly these strangers resolved to follow the exam- 
ple of the ^olians and seek new settlements in the East. They were led 
by princes of the family of Codrus, the last king of Attica. In their pas- 



* The names of the eleven iEolic cities were Cyme, Temnos, Larissa, Keon-Tloho*, 
'Mg«, Myrina, Grynium, Cilia, Notium, ^giroessa, Pitane 



Chap. IV.] 



COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR. 



35 



Bage across tlie -^gean Sea they colonized most of the Cyclades ; and in 
Asia Minor they took possession of the fertile country from the Hermus 
to the Mgeander, which was henceforth called Ionia, and also of the neigh- 
boring islands of Chios and Samos. In this district we find twelve inde- 
pendent states in later times, aU of which adopted the Ionic name, not- 
withstanding the diversity of their origin, and were united by the common 
worship of the god Poseidon (Neptune) at the great Pan-Ionic festival.* 
There can be no doubt that these cities were really founded at different 
periods and by different emigrants, although their origin is ascribed to the 
great legendary migration of which we have been speaking, and which is 
referred by chronologists to one special year, one hundred and forty years 
after the Trojan war. 




Map of the chief Greek Colonies in Asia Minor. 



* The names of the twelve Ionic cities, enumerated from south to north, were Miletus, 
MyfU, Priene, Samos, Eph6sus, Colophon, Leb6dus, Teos, Erythrae, Chios, Clazom6n«, 
Phocasa. To these twelve Smyrna was afterwards added. 



86 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. IV. 

§ 10. The Doric colonies in the southwestem comer of Asia Minor 
and in the neighboring islands may be traced in like manner to the con- 
quest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. In the general change of popula- 
tion and consequent emigrations caused by this important event, some of 
the Doric cliiefs were also induced to quit the country they had recently 
subdued, and to lead bodies of their own countrymen and of ^le conquered 
Achseans to Asia. The most celebrated of the Doric migrations was that 
conducted by the Argive Althtemenes, a descendant of Temenus, who, 
after leaving some of his followers at Crete, proceeded with the remainder 
to the island of Rhodes, where he founded the three cities of Lindus, 
lalysus, and Camirus. About the same time Dorians settled in the neigh- 
boring island of Cos, and founded the cities of Halicarnassus and Cnidus 
on the mainland. These six colonies formed a confederation, usually 
called the Doric Hexapolis. 

§ 11. Doric colonies were also founded in mythical times in the islands 
of Crete, Melos, and Thera. The colonization of Crete more particularly 
deserves our attention^ on account of the similarity of the institutions of its 
Doric cities to those of Sparta. There were Dorians in Crete in the time 
of the Odyssey, but theh' cliief migrations td this island took place in the 
third generation after their conquest of Peloponnesus. Of these two are 
expressly mentioned, one conducted under the auspices of Sparta, and the 
other by the Argive Althfemenes. Of the latter we have already spoken ; 
the former consisted chiefly of Minyans, who had been settled at Amyclag 
by the Achaean Philonomus, to whom the Spartans had granted this city 
on account of his treachery, as has been already related. These Minyans, 
having revolted against Sparta, were sent out of the country as emigrants, 
but accompanied by many Spartans. They sailed towards Crete, and in 
their passage settled some of their number in the island of Melos, which 
remained faitliful to Lacedsemon, even in the time of the Peloponnesian 
war. In Crete they founded Gortys and Lyctus, which are mentioned as 
Spartan colonies. The Doric colonists in Crete were anxious to connect 
themselves with the mythical glories of Minos, and consequent^ly ascribed 
their political and social institutions to this celebrated hero. Hence the 
tradition arose that the Spartan institutions were borrowed by Lycurgus 
from those of Crete ; but it seems more probable that their similarity was 
owing to their common origin, and that the Dorians of Crete brought from 
the mother country usages which they sought to hallow by the revered 
name of Minos. 

§ 12. The Return of the Heracleidse and the foundation of the above- 
mentioned colonies form the conclusion of the Mythical Age. From this 
time to the commencement of authentic history in the first Olympiad, there 
is a period of nearly three hundred years, according to the common chro- 
nology. Of tliis long period we have scarcely any record. But this ought 
not to excite om- surprise. The subjects of mythical narrative are drawn, 



Chap. IV.] 



COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR. 



87 



not from recent events, but from an imaginary past, which is supposed to 
be sepai-ated from the present by an indefinite number of years. Origi- 
nally no attempt was made to assign any particular date to the grand events 
of the Mythical Age. It was sufficient for the earher Greeks to beheve 
that their gods and heroes were removed from them by a vast number of 
generations; and it was not till a later time that the hteraiy men of 
Greece endeavored to count backwards to the Mythical Age, and to affix 
dates to the chief events in legendary Greece. 




Temple of Ares io Halicamfmsus. 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. V 




OIKOYNENH XPONOSIAIAI OAYZZElAOMIiPOZ MYpOS 
Homer enthroned. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE POEMS OF HOMER. 



1 1. Importance of the Subject. § 2. Rise of Poetry in Greece. Epic Ballads preparatory 
to the Epopee. ^ 3. The Poems of the Epic Cycle, in which the IKad and the Odyssey 
were included. § 4. Diversity of Opinions respecting the Life and Date of Homer. 
1 5. Iliad and Odyssey recited to Public Companies by the Ehapsodists. § 6. A stand- 
ard Text of the Poems first formed by Peisistratus. § 7. Modern Controversy respecting 
the Origin of the Homeric Poems. Prolegomena of Wolf. § 8. The Iliad and the Odys- 
sey were originally not committed to writing. § 9. They were preserved by the Ehap- 
sodists. § 10. They did not consist originally of separate Lays, but were composed by 
one Poet, as is shown by their Poetical Unity. 

§ 1. No history of Greece would be complete without some account of 
the poems of Homer, and of the celebrated controversy to which they have 
given rise in modem times. Homer was called by the Greeks themselves 
The Poet. The Iliad and the Odyssey were the Greek Bible. They 
were the ultimate standard of appeal on all matters of religious doctrine 
and early history. They were learnt by boys at school, they were the 
study of men in their riper years, and even in the time of Socrates there 
were Athenian gentlemen who could repeat both poems by heart. In 
whatever part of the ancient world a Greek settled, he carried with him a 
love for the great poet ; and long after the Greek people had lost their 



Chap, v.] poems of homek. 3^ 

independence the Iliad and the Odyssey continued to maLatain an undi« 
minished hold upon their affections. No production of profane literature 
has exercised so wide and long-continued an influence, and consequently 
the history of these poems demands and deserves our careful attention. 

§ 2. The origin of the Iliad and the Odyssey cannot be understood with- 
out a short account of the rise of poetry in Greece. Among the Greeks, 
as among all other nations, poetry was cultivated before prose. The first 
poetical compositions appear to have been hymns addressed to the gods, or 
simple ballads recounting the adventures and exploits of some favorite 
hero. We have already seen that the Greeks of the Heroic Age were 
passionately fond of poetry, and that the entertainments of the nobles were 
enlivened by the songs of the bard. Originally these songs appear to 
have been short, unconnected lays. They may be regarded as epic poems 
in the more indefinite sense of the term, since they perpetuated and 
adorned the memory of great men or great deeds. The next unportaut 
step in the progress of popular poetry was to combine these separate ep- 
ical songs into one comprehensive whole. Such a poem may be called an 
Epopee, and presents a much more advanced state of the art. It requires 
genius of a far higher order, a power of combination and construction, not 
needed in poems of the former class. Short epical poems appear to have 
existed before the time of Homer, as we may infer from the Lay of the 
Trojan Horse, sung by the bard Demodocus in the Odyssey ; but the con- 
struction of the epopee, or the epic poem in the nobler sense, is probably 
to be attributed to the genius of Homer. 

§ 3. A large number of these epic poems were extant in antiquity. 
We know the titles of more than thirty of them. Their subjects were all 
taken from the Greek legends. They were arranged by the grammarians 
of Alexandria, about the second century before the Christian era, in a 
chronological series, beginning with the intermarriage of Heaven and 
Earth, and concluding with the death of Odysseus by the hands of his son, 
Telegonus. This collection was known by the name of the Epic Cycle, 
and the poets whose works formed part of it were called Cyclic poets. 
The Hiad and the Odyssey were comprised in the Cycle, and consequently 
the name of Cyclic poet did not oi'iginaUy carry with it any association of 
contempt But as the best poems in the Cycle were spoken of by them- 
selves or by the titles of their separate authors, the general name of Cychc 
poets came to be applied only to the worst, especially as many of the 
inferior poems in the Cycle appear to have been anonymous. Hence we 
can understand why Horace * and others speak in such disparaging terms 
of the Cyclic writers, and how the inferiority of the Cyclic poems is con- 
trasted with the excellence of the Ihad and the Odyssey, although the 
latter had been originally included among them. 

* " Nee sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim." — Hor. Ars Poet. 187. 



40 - HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. V. 

§ 4. All these poems are now lost witli the exception of the Iliad and 
the Odyssey, which stood out prominently above all the others. Through- 
out the flourishing period of Greek literature these unrivalled works were 
universally regarded as the productions of a single mind. At a later time 
some of the Alexandrine grammarians attributed the Diad and the Odyssey 
to two different authors ; but this innovation in the popular behef was never 
regarded with much favor, and obtained few converts. * Although an- 
tiquity was nearly unanimous ia ascribing the Ihad and Odyssey to Homer, 
there was very little agreement respecting the place of his birth, the details 
of his life, or the time in which he hved. Nor is this surprising. His 
poems were the productions of an age in which writing was either totally 
unknowTi or at all events Kttle practised, and which was unaccustomed to 
anything like historical investigation. Seven cities laid claim to his birth,t 
and most of them had legends to tell respecting his romantic parentage, his 
alleged blindness, and his life of an itinerant bard acquainted with poverty 
and sorrow. It cannot be disputed that he was an Asiatic Greek ; but 
this is the only fact in his life which can be regarded as certain. Several 
of the best writers of antiquity supposed him to have been a native of the 
island of Chios, where there existed a poetical gens or fraternity of 
Homerids, who traced their descent from a divine progenitor of this name. 
Most modern scholars believe Smyrna to have been his birthplace. The 
discrepancies respecting his date are no less worthy of remark. The dif- 
ferent epochs assigned to him offer a diversity of nearly five hundred years. 
Herodotus places Homer four hundred years before himself, according to 
which he lived about b. c. 850. This date, or a little later, appears more 
probable than any other. He must be placed before the first Olympiad, 
or B. c. 776 ; while, if we suppose him to have lived very long before that 
epoch, it becomes still more wonderful that his poems should have come 
down from such an age and society to historical times. 

§ 5. The mode in which these poems were preserved has occasioned 
great controversy in modem times. On this point we shall speak pres- 
ently ; but even if they were committed to writing by the poet himself, 
and were handed down to posterity in this manner, it is certain that they 
were rarely read. We must endeavor to realize the difference between 
ancient Greece and our own times. During the most flourishing period 
of Athenian literature, manuscripts were indifferently written, without 
division into parts and without marks of punctuation. They were scarce 
and costly, could only be obtained by the wealthy, and only read by those 
who had had considerable hterary training. Under these circumstances the 
Greeks could never become a reading people ; and thus the great mass 

* The grammarians who maintained the separate origin of the Iliad and Odyssey yrvt9 
called Chorizontes {xapi^ovres) or Separatists. 

f " Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Bhodoa, Argos, Atheosp, 
Orbis de patria certant, Homere, tua." 



Chap, v.] poems OP homer. 41 

even of the Athenians became acquainted with the productions of the lead- 
ing poets of Greece only by hearing them recited at their solemn festivals 
and on other public occasions. This was more strikingly the case at an 
earlier period. The Diad and the Odyssey were not read by individuals 
m private, but were sung or recited at festivals or to assembled companies. 
They were addressed to the ear and feelings of a sympathizing multitude ; 
and much of the impression which they produced must have heen owing to 
the talent of the reciter, and would have disappeared altogether in sohtary 
reading. The bard originally sung his own lays to the accompaniment of 
his lyre. He was succeeded by a body of professional reciters, called 
Rhapsodists,* who rehearsed the poems of others. They employed no 
musical accompaniment, and depended solely for effect upon voice and 
manner. They travelled from town to town, bearing in their hands a 
laurel branch or wand as their badge of office ; and many of them seem to 
have acquired great excellence in their art. We do not know at what 
time the rhapsodist succeeded to the bard ; but the class of professional 
reciters must have arisen as epic poetry ceased to be produced ; and it is 
certain that before the time of Solon the epic poems were recited exclu^ 
eively by the Rhapsodists, either in short fragments before private com- 
panies, or as continuous poems at pubHc festivals. 

§ 6. In early times the Rhapsodists appear to have had exclusive pos- ' 
session of the Homeric poems. But in the seventh century before the 
Christian era, literary culture began to prevail among the Greeks ; and 
men of education and wealth were naturally desirous of obtaining copies of 
the great poet of the nation. From this cause copies came to be circulated 
among the Greeks ; but most of them contained only separate portions of the 
poems, or single rhapsodies, as they were called. Entire copies of such ex- 
tensive works must have been very rare at tliis eai-ly period of Uterature. 
The way in which the separate parts should be arranged seems to have 
given rise to some dispute ; and it was found that there were numerous 
variations in the text of different copies. The very popularity and wide 
extension of the poems contributed to the corruption of the text. Since the 
Diad and the Odyssey were the recognized standard of early history and 
mythology, each tribe was anxious that honorable mention should be made 
of their heroes and their race in these poems, and endeavox'ed to supply 
such omissions by interpolating passages favorable to themselves. The 
Rhapsodists also introduced alterations, and, in order to gratify their vanity, 
inserted lines of their own composition. From these causes, as well as 
from others, we can easily account for the variations found in the text by 

# The etymology of the word Rhapsodist (^a^^bos) is uncertain ; some deriving it 
from the staflf or wand of oflSce (^pa^dos, or prnris) , and others from j^dnrfiv aoiS^v to 
denote the coupling together of verses without any considerable pauses, — the even, un 
^n>ken flow of the epic poem as contrasted with lyric verses. 
6 



42 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. V 

the reading class which began to be formed in the seventh centurj. The 
discovery of these varieties naturally led to measures for establishing a 
standard text of the national poet. Solon is said to have introduced im- 
proved regulations for the public recitations of the poems at the Athenian 
festivals ; but it is to Peisistratus, the tyrant or despot of Athens, that the 
great merit is ascribed of collecting and arranging the poems in their 
present form, in order that they might be recited at the great Panathenaic 
festival at Athens. It is expressly stated by Cicero,* that Peisistratus is 
" reputed to have arranged the books of Homei*, previously in a state of 
confusion, in the form in which we now possess them " ; and this statement 
is supported by the testimony of other ancient writers. From this time, 
therefore, (about b. c. 530,) we may conclude that the Greeks possessed a 
standard text of their great poet, which formed the basis of all subsequent 
editions. 

§ 7. We have already seen that the whole of antiquity, with scarcely an 
exception, regarded the Iliad and the Odyssey as the productions of the 
one poet, called Homer. This opinion continued to be held by almost aU 
modern scholars down to the year 1795, when the celebrated German Pro- 
fessor, F. A. Wolf, pubhshed his Prolegomena, or Prefatory Essay to the 
Diad. In this work he maintained the startling hypothesis that neither the 
Uiad nor the Odyssey was composed as a distinct whole, but that they 
originally consisted of separate epical ballads, each constituting a single 
poem, and that these separate lays, which had no common purpose nor 
fixed arrangement, were for the first time reduced to writing and formed 
into the two great poems of the Ihad and the Odyssey by Peisistratus and 
his friends. Strange and startling as this theory seems, it was not entirely 
new. The substance of it had been already propounded by Vico, a Nea- 
poHtan writer of great originaUty, and by our own great countryman, 
Bentley ; t but their opinions had not been supported by arguments, and 
were soon forgotten. Accordingly, the publication of Wolf's Essay took 
the whole hterary world by surprise, and scarcely any book in modern 
times has effected so complete a revolution in the opinions of scholars. 
Even those who were the most opposed to his views have had their own 
opinions to some extent modified by the arguments which he brought 
forward, and no one has been able to establish the old doctrine in its 
original integrity. It is impossible in the present work to enter into the 
details of the controversy to which Wolf's Essay has given rise. We can 
only endeavor to give a sketch of his principal arguments and of the chief 



* De Oratore, iii. 34. 

t Vico died in 1744. The words of Bentley are : " Homer wrote a sequel of songs and 
rhapsodies, to be sung by himself, for small earnings and good cheer, at festivals and other 
days of merriment ; the Iliad he made for the men, the Odysseis for the other sex. These 
loose songs were not collected together into the form of an epic poem until five hundred 
years after." 



Chap. V.] POEMS OF homek. 43 

objections of his opponents, stating at the same time the opinion which 
seems to us the most probable. 

§ 8. The first argument which Wolf brought forward to support his 
position was, that no written copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey could be 
shown to have existed during the earUer times to which their composition 
is referred, and that, without writing, such long and complicated works 
could neither have been composed nor transmitted to posterity. In oi'der 
to prove this, he entered into a minute discussion concerning the age of the 
art of writing. It is sufficient to state here a few of the more important 
results at which he arrived. In early times the Greeks had no easy and 
convenient materials for writing, such as must have been indispensable for 
long manuscripts like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Moreover, the traces of 
writing in Greece are exceedingly rare, even in the seventh century be- 
fore the Christian era, and we have no remaining inscriptions earlier than 
the 40th Olympiad (b. c. 620). In the Homeric poems themselves there 
is not a single trace of the art of writing.* We find no mention of any 
epitai^n or inscription ; coins are unknown, and even the supercargo of a 
ship has no written list of his cargo, but is obliged to remember it.f In 
addition to this, the absence of the letter called Digamma in the text of the 
poems is a strong proof that they were not originally committed to writing. 
This letter existed at the time of the composition of the poems, and was 
constantly emj)loyed by the poet, but it had entirely vanished from the 
language when tliey were first written. 

§ 9. It seems, therefore, necessary to admit the former part of Wolf's 
first argument, that the Iliad and Odyssey were originally not written ; 
but does it therefore follow, that without this means such long poems 
could neither have been composed nor handed down to posterity ? These 
two questions are not necessarily connected, though they have been usual- 
ly discussed together. Those who have maintained the original unity of 
the Iliad and Odyssey, in opposition to Wolf, have generally thought it in- 
cumbent upon them to prove that the poems were written from the begin- 
ning. But this appears to us quite unnecessary. In the present day the 
memory has become so much weakened by the artificial aid of writing, that 
it may be difficult for us to conceive of the production of a long work 
without such assistance. But there is nothing impossible in it. Even 
modern poets have composed long poems, and have preserved them faith- 
fully in their memories, before committing them to writing. It must also 
be recollected, that poetry was the profession of the ancient bards ; that it 
was not the amusement of their leisure hours, but that they devoted to it 



, * The only passage in which letters are supposed to be mentioned is in the IHad, vi. 168; 
but here the arifiara \vypa are supposed by Wolf and others to signify pictorial, and not 
alphabetical characters. 
t He is(p6pTov nvr]fj.<ov. Odyss. viii. 164. 



44 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. V, 

all the energies of their hearts and souls. The poems which they thus 
composed were treasured up in the memories of their faithful disciples, 
and were handed down to posterity by the Rhapsodists, whose Uves were 
also devoted to this object. The recollection of these poems was rendered 
easier by the simple nature of the story, by the easy structure of the 
verse, by the frequent recurrence of the same words, phrases, and simiLis, 
and by the absence of abstract ideas and reflective thoughts. Accord- 
ingly, we believe that the Iliad and the Odyssey might have been com- 
posed and might have been handed down to posterity without being 
written. 

§ 10. The second argument employed by Wolf to maintain his hy- 
pothesis was derived from an examination of the Hiad and Odyssey them- 
selves. He endeavored to show that the only unity of the poems arises 
from tkeir subjects, and that the numerous contradictions found in them 
plainly prove that they could not have been the productions of a single mind. 
The Trojan war and the wanderings of Ulysses (Odysseus), he remarks, had 
formed the subjects of numerous epic baUads, and it was only because 
they had happened to fit into one another that they were combined into 
two comprehensive poems by Peisistratus and his literary fi^iends. A 
modern disciple of his school has gone so far as to attempt to resolve the 
Hiad mto the original independent lays out of which he supposes the poem 
to have been formed. Now it is evident that this question can only be 
settled by a minute examination of the structure of the poems, for which 
there is no space in the present work. We can only state, that the best 
modern scholars, with very few exceptions, have come to a conclusion 
directly contrary to Wolf's daring theory. Some of the ablest critics in 
modern times have directed their attention to this subject, and while they 
have not denied the existence of interpolations, more or less extensive, in 
both poems, the general result has been to estabhsh their poetical unity, 
and to vindicate their claim to be the greatest models of the epic art. 




Bust of Hom«r 




Primitive Vessels from Athens and Argos. 

BOOK II. 

GROWTH OF THE GRECIAN STATES. 

B. C. 776-500. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE GREEK PEOPLE. 

) 1. Nature of the Subject. § 2. The Chief Ties which bound the Greeks together. 
Community of Blood and of Language. § 3. Community of Eeligious Kites and Fes- 
tivals. § 4. The Amphictyonic Council. § 5. The Olympic Games. § 6. The Pythian, 
Nemean, and Isthmian Games. § 7. The Influence of these Festivals. § 8. Influence of 
the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. § 9. Community of Manners and Character. § 10. The 
Independent Sovereignty of each City a settled Maxim in the Greek Mind. 

§ 1. The present Book will contain the History of Greece from the 
first Olympiad, or the year 776 b. c, to the commencement of the revolt 
of the Ionic Greeks from Persia, in the year 500 b. c. 

Our knowledge of the early part of this period is very scanty, and con- 
sists of only a small number of solitary facts, which have little or no con- 
nection with one another. The division of Greece into a number of small 
independent states is a circumstance that causes great difficulties to the his- 
torian. Unlike the history of Rome, which is confined to an account of 
the origin and development of a single people, the history of Greece from 
its commencement to its close suffers to a greater or a less extent from a 
Want of unity in its subject. This is strikingly the case with the first two 



46 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. VI. 

centuries of the period narrated in the present Book ; and it is not till we 
come to its close, that we are able to present a connected history of the 
Grecian nation. It was the Persian invasions of Greece which first im- 
pressed the leading Greek states with the necessity of uniting together 
against the common foe ; and since the military resources of Sparta were 
then confessedly superior to those of all the other Greeks, they naturally 
intrusted to her the conduct of the war. In this way Grecian history 
acquires a unity of interest which is altogether wanting in the earlier 
times. There are, however, some facts during the earher period which 
claim our attention. Of these the most important are the growth of Spaila 
and Athens ; the number of despots who arose in the various Grecian 
cities ; the foundation and progress of the numerous colonies planted on 
the coasts of the Mediterranean and its connected seas ; and, last of all, 
the origin and progress of hterature and art. 

Before we proceed to give an account of these events, it may be useful 
to take a general survey of the Greeks in the earher period of their his- 
tory, and to point out the various causes which united them as a people, 
notwithstanding their separation into so many independent conmaunities. 

§ 2. The chief ties, which bound together the Grecian world, were com- 
munity of blood and language, community of religious rites and festivals, 
and community of manners and character. Of these the first and the 
most important was the possession of a common descent and a conmion 
language. The Greeks were all of the same race and parentage ; they 
all considered themselves descendants of Hellen ; and they all described 
men and cities which were not Grecian by the term Barbarian. This 
word has passed into our own language, but with a very different idea ; for 
the Greeks applied it indiscriminately to every foreigner, to the civilized 
inhabitants of Egypt and Persia, as well as to the rude tribes of Scythia 
and Gaul. Originally it seems to have expressed repugnance to one 
using a foreign language ; but as the Greeks became in course of time 
superior in intelligence to the surrounding nations, it conveyed also a 
notion of contempt. Notwithstanding the various dialects employed in 
different parts, there was, throughout the Grecian world, sufficient unifonn- 
ity in the language to render it everywhere intelhgible to a Greek ; and 
there can be no doubt that the wide-spread popularity of the Homeric 
poems in early times powerfully assisted in maintaining the same type of 
language among the different Greek races. 

§ 3. The second bond of union was a community of religious rites and 
festivals. From the earliest times the Greeks appear to have worshipped 
the same gods ; but originally there were no rehgious meetings common to 
the whole nation. Such meetings were of gradual growth. They were 
either formed by a number of neighboring towns, which entered into an 
association for the periodical celebration of certain rehgious rites, or they 
grew out of a festival originally confined to a single state, but which was 



Chab. VI.] AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL. 47 

gradually extended to the inhabitants of other cities, till at length it be- 
came open to the whole Grecian world. Of the former class we have an 
example in the Amphictyonies, of the latter in the Olympic, Pythian, 
Nemean, and Isthmian games. 

§ 4. The word Amphictyony is usually derived from the mythical hero 
Amphictyon ; but the name probably signifies only residents around and 
neighbors,* and was used to designate a religious association of neighbor- 
ing tribes or cities, who were accustomed to meet at fixed times to offer 
sacrifices to the god of a particular temple, which was supposed to be the 
common property and under the common protection of all. There were 
many religious associations of this kind in Greece ; but there was one of 
so much celebrity, that it threw all the others into the shade, and came to 
be called the Amphictyonic CouncU. This assembly seems to have been 
originally of small importance ; and it acquired its superiority over other 
similar associations by the wealth and grandeur of the Delphian temple, of 
which it was the appointed guardian. It held two meetings every year, 
one in the spring at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the other in the 
autumn at the temple of Demeter (Ceres) at Thermopylae. Its members, 
who were called The Amphictyons,t consisted of sacred deputies sent from 
twelve tribes, each of which contained several independent cities or states. 
The deputies were composed of two classes of representatives from each 
tribe, — a chief called Hieromnemon, and subordinates named Pylagorse. 
The names of these twelve tribes are not the same in all accounts, but they, 
were probably as follows : Thessalians, Boeotians, Dorians, lonians, 
Perrhaebians, Magnetes, Locrians, Q^^tseans, Achasans, Phocians, Dolopes, 
and Malians. These names are of themselves sufficient to pro^'e the great 
antiquity of the Council. Several of the tribes here mentioned scarcely 
ever occur in the historical period ; and the fact of the Dorians standing 
on an equality with the Dolopes and the Malians, shows that the Council 
must have existed before the Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus. The 
tribes represented in it stood on a footing of perfect equality, two votes 
bemg given by the deputies from each of the twelve. 

Of the duties of the Amphictyonic Council nothing will give us a better 
idea than the oath taken by its members. It ran thus : " We will not 
destroy any Amphictyonic town, nor cut it off from running water, in war 
or peace : if any one shall do so, we will march against him and destroy 
his city. If any one shall plunder the property of the god, or shall be cog- 
nizant thereof, or shall take treacherous counsel against the tilings in his 
temple at Delphi, we will punish him with foot, and hand, and voice, and 
by every means in our power." We thus see that the main duties of the 

* The original form of the name seems to have been ^ AficpiKTiovia, not ' Afi(f>i,KTVOvia. 
The word d^(j)iKTLoves signifies those that dwell round or near. 

♦ Of 'A/i^tKTVOVfB. 



48 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. VI. 

Council were to restrain acts of aggression against its members, and tc 
preserve the rights and dignity of the temple of Delphi. It is true that 
the Amphictyons sometimes took a larger view of their functions ; but 
these were only employed for political purposes when they could be made 
subsei-vient to the views of one of the leading Grecian states. They were 
never considered as a national congress, whose duty it was to protect and 
defend the common interests of Greece. If such a congress had ever 
existed, and its edicts had commanded the obedience of the Greeks, the 
history of the nation would have had a different course ; the Macedonian 
kings would probably have remained in their subordinate condition, and 
united Greece might even have defied the legions of conquering Rome. 

The Amphictyonic Council is rarely mentioned, except in connection 
with the Delphian temple ; but when the rights of the god had been vio- 
lated, it invoked the aid of the different members of the league. Of this 
we have a memorable instance in the earlier period of Greek history. 
The Phocian town of Crissa was situated on the heights of Mount Par- 
nassus, near the sanctuary of the god, which belonged to this town in the 
most ancient times.* It possessed a fertile and valuable territor)^, extend- 
ing dowji to the Corinthian Gulf, on which it had a port called Cirrha. 
Gradually the port seems to have grown into importance at the expense of 
the town : while at the same time the sanctuary of the god fell into the 
hands of the Dorian tribe of the Delphians, and expanded into a town 
under the name of Delphi. It was at the port of Cin'ha that most of the 
strangers landed who came to consult the god ; and the inhabitants of this 
place availed themselves of their position to levy exorbitant tolls upon the 
pilgrims, and to iU-use them in other ways. In consequence of these 
outrages the Amphictyons resolved to punish the Cirrhjeans ; and after 
waging war against them for ten years (b. c. 595-585), the Council at 
length succeeded, chiefly by the assistance of the Thessalians, and Athe- 
nians, in taking the guilty city. It is related, but on rather suspicious 
authority, that the city was taken by a stratagem of Solon, who poisoned 
the waters of the river Pleistus, which flowed through the place. Cirrha 
was razed to the ground, and its territory — the rich Cirrhfean or Crissgean 
plain — was consecrated to the god, and curses imprecated upon any one 
who should cultivate it. Thus ended the First Sacred "War, as it is 
usually called ; and the spoils of the city were employed by the victorious 
aUies in founding the Pythian games. 

§ 5. The four great festivals of the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and 

*. Crissa was situated at the foot of Mount Parnassus, where it descends precipitously to the 
CrissSBan Plain. The present name is Chryso. The situation is one of remarkable beauty, 
having the lofty heights of Parnassus in the rear, and between it and the Corinthian Gulf, 
the beautiful Crisssean Plain, with its picturesque olive-groves and fertile fields, watered by 
the Pleistus. There are considerable remains of the ancient walls, which, as well as the 
existing name, serve to identify the place. — Ed. 



Chap. VI.] NATIONAL FESHFAiLS. 49 

Uemean games were of greater eflScacy than the Amphictjonic Council in 
promoting a spirit of union among the various branches of the Greek race, 
and in keeping alive a feeling of their common origin. They were open 
to aU persons who could prove their Hellenic blood, and were frequented 
by spectators from aU parts of the Grecian world. The most ancient as 
well as the most famous of these festivals was that celebrated at Olympia, 
on the banks of the Alpheus, in the territory of Elis, and near the ancient 
temple of the Olympian Zeus. The origin of this festival is lost in the 
Mythical Ages. It is said to have been revived by Iphitus, king of Elis, 
and Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, in the year 776 b. c. ; and accord- 
ingly? when the Greeks at a later time began to use the Olympic contest 
as a chronological era, this year was regarded as the first Olympiad. It 
continued to maintain its celebrity for many centuries after the extinction 
of Greek freedom ; and it was not tiU 394 A. d. that it was finally abol- 
ished by the Emperor Theodosius. It was celebrated at the end of every 
four years,* and the interval which elapsed between each celebration was 
called an Olympiad. The whole festival was under the management 
of the Eleans, who appointed some of their own number to preside as 
judges, under the name of the Hellanodic^.f During the month in which 
it was celebrated all hostihties were suspended throughout Greece. The 
territory of Elis itself was considered especially sacred dui'ing its con- 
tiauance, and no armed force could enter it without incurring the guilt of 
sacrilege. The number of spectators was very great ; and consisted not only 
of those who were attracted by private interest or curiosity, but of depu- 
ties J from the different Greek states, who vied with one another ia the 
number of their offerings and the splendor of their general appearance, in 
order to support the honor of their native cities. At first the festival was 
confined to a siagle day, and consisted of nothing more than a match of 
runners in the stadium ; but in course of time so many other contests 
were introduced, that the games occupied five days. They comprised 
various trials of strength and skill, such as wresthng, boxing, the Pancra- 
tium (boxing and wrestling combined), and the complicated Pentathlum 
(including jumping, running, the quoit, the javelin, and wrestling), but no 
combats with any kind of weapons. There were also horse-races and 
chariot-races ; and the chariot-race, with four fuU-grown horses, became 
one of the most popular and celebrated of all the matches. 

The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of wild-ohve ; but 
this was valued as one of the dearest distinctions in life. To have his 



* The festival was called by the Greeks a Pentaeteris (TrevTaertjpis), because it was 
celebrated every Jifth year, according to the ancient mode of the reckoning. In the same 
manner, a festival which occurred at the end of every two years was said to be celebrated 
every third year, and was called a Trieteris {Tpierrjpis). 

t EWavodiKai. 

t Called Theori (eewpoi). 

7 



50 mSTORT OF GREECE. [ChAP. VI 

name proclaimed as victor before assembled Hellas was an object of am 
bition with the noblest and the wealthiest of the Greeks. Such a person 
was considered to have conferred everlasting glory upon his family and 
his country, and was rewarded by his fellow-citizens with distinguished 
honors. His statue was generally erected in the Altis or sacred grove of 
Zeus ai, Olympia ; and on his return home he entered his native city in a 
triumphal procession, in which his praises were sung, frequently in the 
loftiest strains of poetry. He also received still more substantial rewards. 
He was generally relieved from the payment of taxes, and had a right to 
the front seat at aU public games and spectacles. An Athenian victor in 
the Olympic games received, in accordance with one of Solon's laws, 
a prize of five hundred drachmas, and a right to a place at the table 
of the magistrates in the prytaneum or town-hall ; and a Spartan con- 
queror had the privilege of fighting on the field of battle near the person 
of the king. 

§ 6. During the sixth century before the Christian era the three other 
festivals of the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, which were at first 
only local, became open to the whole nation. The Pythian games, as a 
national festival, were instituted by the Amphictyons after the destruction 
of Crissa in 585 b. c, in honor of Apollo, as has been already related. 
They were celebrated in every third Olympic year, on the Cirrhasan plain, 
imder the superintendence of the Amphictyons. The games consisted not 
only of matches in gymnastics and of horse and chai'iot races, but also of 
contests in music and poetry. They soon acquired celebrity, and became 
second only to the great Olympic festival. 

The Nemean and Isthmian games occurred more frequently than the 
Olympic and Pythian. They were celebrated once in two years, — the 
Nemean in honor of the Nemean Zeus, in the valley of Nemea, between 
Phlius and Cleonge, originally by the Cleonseans and subsequently by the 
Argives, — and the Isthmian by the Corinthians, on their isthmus, in 
honor of Poseidon (Neptune) 1 As in the Pythian festival, contests in 
music and in poetry, as well as gymnastics and chariot-races, formed part 
of these games. 

§ 7. Although the four great festivals of which we have been speaking 
had little influence in promoting the political union of Greece, they never- 
theless were of great importance in making the various sections of the 
race feel that they were all members of one family, and in cementing them 
together by common sympathies and the enjoyment of common pleasures. 
The frequent occurrence of these festivals, for one was celebrated every 
year, tended to the same result. The Greeks were thus annually re- 
minded of their common origin, and of the great distinction which existed 
between them and barbarians. Nor must we forget the incidental advan- 
tages which attended them. The concourse of so large a number of per- 
sons from every part of the Grecian world afforded to the merchant op* 



Chap. VL] ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. 5l 

portunities for traffic, and to the artist and the literary man the best means 
of making their works known. During the time of the games the AMs 
was surrounded with booths, in which a busy commerce was carried on ; 
and in a spacious hall appropriated for the purpose, the poets, philosophers, 
and historians were accustomed to read their most recent works. 

The perfect equaUty of persons at the festival demands particular men- 
tion. The games were open to every Greek, without any distinction of 
country or of rank. The horse-races and chariot-races were necessarily 
confined to the wealthy, who were allowed to employ others as riders and 
drivers ; but the rich and poor ahke could contend in the gymnastic 
matches. This, however, was far from degrading the former in public 
opinion ; and some of the greatest and wealthiest men in the various cities 
took part in the running, wrestling, boxing, and other matches. Cylon, 
who attempted to make himself tyrant of Athens, had gained the prize in 
the foot-race ; Alexander, son of Amyntas, prince of Macedon, had also run 
for it ; and instances occur in which cities chose their generals from the 
victors of these games. 

§ 8. The habit of consulting the same oracles in order to ascertain the 
will of the gods, was another bond of union. It was the universal practice 
of the Greeks to undertake no matter of importance without first asking 
the advice of the gods ; and there were many sacred spots in which the 
gods were always ready to give an answer to pious worshippers. Some 
of these oracles were consulted only by the surrounding neighborhood, but 
others obtained a wider celebrity ; and the oracle of ApoUo at Delphi in 
particular surpassed all the rest in importance, and was regarded with 
veneration in every part of the Grecian world. So great was its fame 
that it was sometimes consulted by foreign nations, such as the Lydians, 
Phrygians, and Romans ; and the Grecian states constantly applied to it 
for counsel in their difficulties and perplexities. In the centre of the tem- 
ple at Delphi there was a small opening in the ground, from which it was 
said that a certain gas or vapor ascended. Whenever the oracle was to 
be consulted, a virgin priestess, called Pythia, took her seat upon a tripod, 
which was placed over the chasm. The ascending vapor affected her 
brain, and the words she uttered in this excited condition were believed to 
be the answer of Apollo to his worshippers. They were always in hex- 
ameter verse, and were reverently taken down by the attendant priests. 
Most of the answers were equivocal or obscure ; but the credit of the 
oracle continued unimpaired long after the downfall of Grecian indepen- 
dence. 

§ 9. A further element of union among the Greeks was the similarity 
of manners and character. It is true, the difference in this respect between 
the pohshed inhabitants of Athens and the rude mountaineers of Ac.ir- 
nania was marked and striking ; but if we compare the two with foreign 
contemporaries the contrast between them and the latter is stiU more 



52 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. VI 

etriking. Absolute despotism, human sacrifices, polygamy, deliberate muti- 
lation of the person as a punishment, and selling of children into slavery, 
existed in some part or other of the barbarian world, but are not found in 
any city of Greece in the historical times. Although we cannot mention 
many customs conunon to all the Greeks and at the same time peculiar to 
them, yet we cannot doubt that there did exist among them certain general 
characteristics in their manners and customs, which served as a bond of 
union among themselves, and a line of demarcation from foreigners. 

§ 10. The elements of union of which we have been speaking — com- 
munity of blood and language, of religion and festivals, and of manners and 
character — only bound the Greeks together in common feelings and sen- 
timents. They never produced any political union. The independent 
sovereignty of each city was a fundamental notion in the Greek mind. 
The only supreme authority which a Greek recognized was to be found 
within his own city walls. The exercise of authority by one city over 
another, whatever advantages the weaker city might derive from such a 
connection, was repugnant to every Greek. This was a sentiment com- 
mon to all the difiPerent members of the Greek race, under all forms of 
government, whether oligarchical or democratical. Hence the domuiion 
exercised by Thebes over the cities of Boeotia, and by Athens over subject 
allies, was submitted to with reluctance, and was disowned on the first 
opportimity. This strongly rooted feeling deserves particular notice and 
remark. Careless readers of history are tempted to suppose that the ter- 
ritory of Greece was divided among a comparatively small number of inde- 
pendent states, such as Attica, Arcadia, Boeotia, Phocis, Locris, and the 
like ; but this is a most serious mistake, and leads to a total misapprehen- 
sion of Greek history. Every separate city was usually an independent 
state, and consequently each of the territories described under the general 
names of Arcadia, Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris, contained numerous politi- 
cal communities independent of one another. Attica, it is true, formed a 
single state, and its difierent towns recognized Athens as their capital and 
the source of supreme power ; but this is an exception to the general 
rule. 

The patriotism of a Greek was confined to his city, and rarely kindled 
into any general love for the common welfare of HeUas. The safety and 
the prosperity of his city were dearer to him than the safety and pros- 
perity of Hellas, and to secure the former he was too often contented to 
sacrifice the latter. For his own city, a patriotic Greek was ready to lay 
down his property and his life, but he felt no obligation to expend his sub- 
stance or expose his life on behalf of the common interests of the country. 
So complete was the political division between the Greek cities, that the 
citizen of one was an alien and a stranger in the territoiy of another. He 
was not merely debarred from all share in the government, but he could 
not acquire property in land or houses, nor contract a marriage with a native 



Chap. VI.] 



WANT OF POLITICAL UNION. 



woman, nor sue in the courts of justice, except tkrough the medium of a 
friendly citizen.* The cities thus mutually repelling each other, the sym- 
pathies and feelings of a Greek became more centred in his own. It was 
this exclusive patriotism which rendered it diffiult for the Greeks to unite 
under chcumstances of common danger. It was this poHtical disunion 
which led them to turn their arms against each other, and eventually 
made them subject to the Macedonian monarchs. 

* Sometimes a city granted to a citizen of another state, or even to the whole state, the 
right of intermarriage and of acquiring landed property. The former of these rights was 
called €Triyafj.ia, the latter (yKTrjtns. 




Greek Car used in Games. 



54 



HISTOBY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. Vlt 




View of Mount Taygetus from the Site of Sparta. 
CHAPTER VIL 

EARLY HISTORY OF PELOPONNESUS AND LEGISLATION OF LTCUK6US 

1 1. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. Division of the Peloponnesus into the 
Doric States, Elis, Achaia, and Arcadia. § 2. Division of the Doric States in Pelopon 
nesus. Argos originally the first Doric State, Sparta second, Messene third. § 3. Pheidon 
ofArgos. § 4. Legislation of Lycurgus. § 5. Life of Lycurgns. §6. The Chief Object 
of Lycurgus in his Legislation. § 7. Population of Laconia divided into three Classes. 
Spartans. § 8. Perioeci. ^ 9. Helots. ^ 10. Political Government of Sparta. The 
Kings. The Senate. The Popular Assembly. The Ephors. § 11. Training and Educa- 
tion of the Spartan Youths and Men. § 12. Training of the Spartan Women. § 13. Di- 
vision of Landed Property. § 14. Other Regulations ascribed to Lycurgus. Iron Money. 
4 15. Defensible Position of Sparta. § 16. Growth of the Spartan Power, a Consequence 
of the Discipline of Lycurgus. Conquest of Laconia. 

§ 1. In the Heroic Ages Peloponnesus was the seat of the great Achaean 
monarchies. Mycenae was the residence of Agamemnon, king of men, 
Sparta of his brother Menelaus, and Argos of Diomedes, who dared 
to contend in battle with the immortal gods. But before the com- 
mencement of history all these monarchies had been swept away, and 
their subjects either driven out of the land or compelled to submit to the 
dominion of the Dorians. The history of the conquest of Peloponnesus by 
this warlike race is clothed in a legendary form, and has been already nar- 
rated in the preceding Book. In what manner this conquest was really 
effected is beyond the reach of history, but we have good reasons for be- 
lieving that it was the work of many years, and was not concluded by a 
single battle, as the legends would lead us to suppose. "We find, however 



Chap. VII.] EARLY HISTORY OF PELOPONNESUS. 55 

in the earlj historical times, the whole of the eastern and southern parts of 
Peloponnesus in the undisputed possession of the Dorians. - 

The remaining parts of the peninsula were in the hands of other members 
of the Greek race. On the western coast from the mouth of the Neda to 
that of the Larissus was the territory of Elis, including the two dependent 
states of Pisa and Triphylia. The Eleans are said to have been descend- 
ants of the JEtolians, who had accompanied the Dorians in their invasion, 
and received EUs as their share of the spoil. The Pisatans and the Tri- 
phylians had been originally independent inhabitants of the peninsula, but 
had been conquered by their more powerful neighbors of Ehs. 

The strip of land on the northern coast of Peloponnesus, and south of 
the Corinthian Gulf, was inhabited by Achseans, and was called after them 
Achaia. This territory extended from the mouth of the river Araxus on 
one side to the confines of Sicyonia on the other, and was divided among 
twelve Achsean cities, which are rarely mentioned ih the earher period of 
Greek history, and only rose to importance in the Macedonian times. 

The mountainous region in the centre of Peloponnesus was inhabited by 
the Arcadians, who may be regarded as genuine Pelasgians, since they are 
uniformly represented as the earhest inhabitants of the country. Their 
country was distributed into a large number of villages and cities, among 
which Tegea and Mantinea were the two most powerful. 

§ 2. The division of Peloponnesus among the Dorian states differed at 
various times. At the close of the period which forms the subject of the 
present Book, Sparta was unquestionably the first of the Dorian powers, and 
its dominions far exceeded those of any other Dorian state. Its territory 
then occupied the whole of the southern region of the peninsula from the 
eastern to the western sea, being separated from the dominions of Argos by 
the river Tanus, and from Triphylia by the river Neda. At that time the 
territory of Argos was confined to the Argohc peninsula, but did not include 
the whole of this district, the southeastern part of it being occupied by the 
Doric cities of Epidaurus and Troezen, and the Dryopian city of Hermione. 
On the Isthmus stood the powerful city of Corinth, westward Sicyon, and 
to the south of these Cleonge and Philus, both also Doric cities. North- 
east of Corinth came Megara, the last of the Doric cities, whose territory 
stretched across the Isthmus from sea to sea. 

But if we go back to the first Olympiad, we shall find Sparta in posses- 
sion of only a very small territory, uistead of the extensive dommion de- 
scribed above. Its territory at that time appears to have comprehended 
little more than the valley of the river Eurotas. Westward of this valley, 
and separated from it by Mount Taygetus, were the Messenian Dorians, 
while eastward of it the whole of the mountainous district along the coast, 
from the head of the Argohc Gulf down to Cape Malea, was also inde- 
pendent of Sparta, belonging to Argos. In the earliest historical times 
Argos appears as the first power in the Peloponnesus, a fact which the 



56 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. VII. 

legend of the Heracleids seems to recognize by making Temenus tlie eldest 
brother of the three. Next came Sparta, and last the Messene. The im- 
portance of Argos appears to have arisen not so much from her own terri- 
tory as from her being the head of a powerful confederacy of Dorian 
states. Most of these states are said to have been founded by colonies 
from Argos, such as Cleon^, Phliiis, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Trcezen, and 
-^gma. They formed a league, the patron god of which was Apollo 
Pythaeus, whose common worship was a means of uniting them together. 
There was a temple to this god in each of the confederated cities, while 
his most holy and central sanctuary was on the acropolis of Argos. But 
the power of Argos rested on an insecure basis ; the ties which held the 
confederacy together became gradually weakened ; and Sparta was able to 
wrest from her a large portion of her territory, and eventually to succeed 
to her place as the first Dorian state in the peninsula. 

§ 3. The importance of the privileges possessed by Argos before the 
rise of the Spartan power is shown by the history of Pheidon. This re- 
markable man may be placed about the eighth Olympiad, or 747 B. c, and 
claims our attention the more as one of the first really historical person- 
ages hitherto presented to us. He was king of Argos, and is represented 
as a descendant of the Heracleid Temenus. Having broken through the 
limits which had been imposed on the authority of his predecessors, he 
changed the government of Argos into a despotism. He then restored her 
supremacy over all the cities of her confederacy, which had become nearly 
dissolved. He appears next to have attacked Corinth, and to have suc- 
ceeded in reducing it under his dominion. He is further reported to have 
aimed at extending his sway over the greater part of Peloponnesus, — 
laying claim, as the descendant of Hercules, to all the cities which that 
hero had ever taken. His power and his influence became so great in the 
Peloponnesus, that the Pisatans, who had been accustomed to preside at 
the Olympic games, but who had been deprived of this privilege by the 
Eleans, invited him, in the eighth Olympiad, to restore them to their origi- 
nal rights and expel the intruders. This invitation fell in with the am- 
bitious projects of Pheidon, who claimed for himself the right of presiding 
at these games, which had been instituted by his great ancestor, Hercules. 
He accordingly marched to Olympia, expelled the Eleans from the sacred 
spot, and celebrated the games in conjunction with the Pisatans. But his 
triumph did not last long ; the Spartans took the part of the Eleans, and 
the contest ended in the defeat of Pheidon. In the folowing Olympiad 
the Eleans again obtained the management of the festival. 

It would appear that the power of Pheidon was destroyed in tliis strug- 
gle, but of the details of his fall we have no information. He did not 
however fall without leaving a very striking and permanent trace of his 
influence upon Greece. He was the first person who introduced a copper 
and a silver coinage and a scale of weights and measures into Greece. 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OF LTCURGUS. 5T' 

Through his influence they became adopted throughout Peloponnesus and 
the greater part of the North of Greece, under the name of the ^ginetan 
scale. There arose subsequently another scale in Greece called the Eu- 
boic, which was employed at Athens and in the Ionic cities generally, as 
well as in Eubcea. It is usually stated that the coinage of Pheidon was 
struck in the island of -^gina, but it appears more probable that it was 
done in Ai'gos, and that the name of JEginetan was given to the coinage 
and scale, not from the place where they first originated, but from the 
people whose commercial activity tended to make them more generally 
known. 

§ 4. The progress of Sparta from the second to the first place among 
the states in Peloponnesus was mainly owing to the pecuKar institutions 
of the state, and more particularly to the military discipKne and rigorous 
training of its citizens. The singular constitution of Sparta was unani- 
mously ascribed by the ancients to the legislator Lycurgus, but there were 
different stories respecting his date, birth, travels, legislation, and death. 
Some modern writers, on the other hand, have maintained that the Spartan 
institutions were common to the whole Doric race, and therefore cannot 
be regarded as the work of a Spartan legislator. In their view, Sparta is 
the full type of Doric principles, tendencies, and sentiments. This, how- 
ever, appears to be an erroneous view ; it can be shown that the institu- 
tions of Sparta were pecuKar to herself, distinguishing her as much from 
the Doric cities of Argos and Corinth, as from Athens and Thebes. The 
Cretan institutions bore, it is true, some analogy to those of Sparta, but 
the resemblance has been greatly exaggerated, and was chiefly confined to 
the syssitia or public messes. The Spartans, doubtless, had original ten- 
dencies common to them with the other Dorians ; but the constitution of 
Lycurgus impressed upon them their pecuhar character, which separates 
them so strikingly from the rest of Greece. Whether the system of Spar- 
tan laws is to be attributed to Lycurgus, cannot now be determined. He 
lived in an age when writing was never employed for Hterary purposes, 
and consequently no account of him from a contemporary has come down 
to us. None of the details of his life can be proved to be historically trae ; 
and we are obliged to choose out of several accounts the one which ap- 
pears the most probable. 

§ 0. There are very great discrepancies respecting the date of Lycur- 
gus ; but all accounts agree in supposing him to have lived at a very re- 
mote period. His most probable date is b. c. 776, in which year he is 
said to have assisted Iphitus in restoring the Olympic games. He be- 
longed to the royal family of Sparta. According to the common account, 
he was the son of Eunomus, one of the two kings who reigned together in 
Sparta. His father was killed in the civil dissensions which afflicted 
Sparta at that time. His elder brother, Polydectes, succeeded to the 
crown, but died soon afterwards, leaving his queen with child. The am- 
8 



58 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. VII. 

bitious woman offered to destroy the child, if Lycurgus would share the 
throne with her. Lycurgus pretended to consent ; but as soon as she had 
given birth to a son, he presented him in the market-place as the future 
king of Sparta ; and, to testify to the people's joy, gave him the name of 
Charilaus. The young king's mother took revenge upon Lycurgus by 
accusing him of entertaining designs against his nephew's life. Hereupon 
he resolved to withdraw from his native country, and to visit foreign lands. 
He was absent many years, and is said to have employed his time in study- 
ing the institutions of other nations, and in conversing with their sages, in 
order to devise a system of laws and regulations which might deliver 
Sparta from the evils under which it had long been suffering. He first 
visited Crete and Ionia ; and, not content with the Grecian world, passed 
from Ionia into Egypt ; and according to some accounts is reported to have 
visited Iberia, Libya, and even India. 

During his absence the young king had grown up, and assumed the 
reins of government ; but the disorders of the state had meantime become 
worse than ever, and all parties longed for a termination of their present 
Bufferings. Accordingly the return of Lycurgus was hailed with dehght, 
and he found the people both ready and willing to submit to an entire 
change in their government and institutions. He now set himself to work 
to carry his long-projected reforms into effect ; but before he commenced 
his arduous task, he consulted the Delphian oracle, from which he received 
strong assurances of divine support. Thus encouraged by the god, he 
suddenly presented himself in the market-place, surrounded by thirty of 
the most distinguished Spartans in arms. The king, Charilaus, was at fii'st 
disposed to resist the revolution, but afterwards supported the schemes of 
his uncle. Lycurgus now issued a set of ordinances, called Rhetrai, by 
which he effected a total revolution in the political and military organiza- 
tion of the people, and in their social and domestic hfe. His reforms were 
not carried into effect without violent opposition, and in one of the tumults 
which they excited, his eye is said to have been struck out by a youth of 
the name of Alcander. But he finally triumphed over all obstacles, and 
succeeded in obtaining the submission of all classes in the community to 
his new constitution. His last act was to sacrifice himself for the weffare 
of his country. Having obtained from the people a solemn oath to make 
no alterations in his laws before liis return, he quitted Sparta for ever. 
He set out on a journey to Delphi, where he obtained an oracle from the 
god, approving of all he had done, and promising everlasting prosperity to 
the Spartans as long as they preserved his laws. Whither he went after- 
wards, and how and where he died, nobody could tell. He vanished from 
earth like a god, leaving no traces behind him but his spirit : and his 
grateful countrymen honored him with a temple, and worshipped him with 
annual sacrifices down to the latest times. 

§ 6. In order to understand the constitution of Lycurgus, it is necessary 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS. 59 

to recollect the peculiar circumstances in which the Spartans were placed. 
They were a handful of men in possession of a country which they had 
conquered by the sword, and which they could only maintain by the same 
means. They probably did not exceed nine thousand men ; and the great 
object of the legislator was to unite this small body together by the closest 
ties, and to train them in such habits of hardihood, bravery, and mihtary 
suboi'dination that they might maintain their ascendency over their sub- 
jects. The means which he adopted to attain this object were exceeding- 
ly severe, but eminently successful. He subjected the Spartans to a dis- 
cipline at once monastic and warUke, unparalleled either in ancient or in 
modern times. His system combined the ascetic rigors of a monastery 
with the stern discipline of a garrison. But before we proceed to relate 
the details of this extraordinary system, it will be necessary to give an 
account of the different classes of the population of the country, and also 
of the nature of the government. 

§ 7. The population of Laconia was divided into the three classes of 
Spartans, Periceci, and Helots. 

The Spartans wepe the descendants of the leading Dorian conquerors. 
They formed the sovereign power of the state, and they alone were eUgi- 
ble to honors and public offices. They lived in Sparta itself, and 
were all subject to the discipline of Lycurgus. They were maintained 
from their estates in different parts of Laconia, which were cultivated 
for them by the Helots, who paid them a fixed amount of the produce. 
Originally all Spartans were on a footing of perfect equality. They 
were divided into three tribes, — the Hylleis, the Pamphyh, and the 
Dymanes, — which were not, however, peculiar to Sparta, but existed in 
all the Dorian states. They retained their full rights as citizens, and 
transmitted them to their children, on two conditions ; — first, of submitting 
to the discipline of Lycurgus ; and secondly, of paying a certain amount 
to the pubHc mess, which was maintained solely by these contributions. 
In the course of time many Spartans forfeited their full citizenship from 
being unable to comply with the latter of these conditions, either through 
losing their lands or through the increase of children in the poorer fami- 
lies. Thus there arose a distinction among the Spartans themselves, un- 
known at an earlier period, — the reduced number of qualified citizens 
being called the Equals or Peers,* the disfranchised poor, the Inferiors.f 
The latter, however, did not become Periceci, but might recover their 
original rank if they again acquired the means of contributing their por- 
tion to the public mess. 

§ 8. The Periceci % were personally free, but politically subject to the 

* Oi "Ofioioi . f Ot 'Yiroftftoves- 

X The name UepioiKoi signifies literally " dwellers around the city," and is used gen 

erally by the Greeks to signify the inhabitants in the country districts, who possessed in 

ferior political privileges to the citizens who lived in the city. 



60 HISTOKT OP GREECE. [Chap. VII 

Spartans. They possessed no share in the government, and were bound 
to obey the commands of the Spartan magistrates. Tliey appear to have 
been partly the descendants of the old Achaean population of the country, 
and partly of Dorians who had not been admitted to the full privileges of 
the ruling class. They were distributed into a hundred townships, which 
were spread through the whole of Laconia. They fought in the Spartan 
armies as heavy-armed soldiers, and therefore must have been trained to 
some extent in the Spartan tactics ; but they were certainly exempt from 
the peculiar discipline to which the ruling class was subject, and possessed 
more individual freedom of action. The larger proportion of the land of 
Laconia belonged to Spartan citizens, but the smaller was the property of 
the Periceci. The whole of the commerce and manufactures of the country 
was in their exclusive possession, since no Spartan ever engaged in such 
occupations. They thus had means of acquiring wealth and importance, 
from which the Spartans themselves were excluded ; and although they 
were probably treated by the Spartans with the same haughtiness which 
they usually displayed towards inferiors, their condition upon the whole 
does not appear as oppressive or degrading. They were regarded as 
members of the state, though not possessing the full citizenship, and were 
included along with the Spartans as Laconians or Lacedjemonians. 

§ 9. The Helots were serfs bound to the soil, which they tilled for the 
benefit of the Spartan proprietors. Their condition was very different 
from that of the ordinary slaves in antiquity, and more similar to the villa- 
nage of the Middle Ages. They lived in the rural villages, as the Periceci 
did in the towns, cultivating the lands and paying over the rent to their 
masters in Sparta, but enjoying their homes, wives, and families, apart 
from their master's personal superintendence. They appear to have beea 
never sold, and they accompanied the Spartans to the field as Hght-armed 
troops. But while their condition was in these respects superior to that 
of the ordinary slaves in other parts of Greece, it was embittered by the 
fact that they were not strangers, like the latter, but were of the same race, 
and spoke the same language as their masters. Their name is variously 
explamed, and we have different accounts of their origin ; but there is no 
doubt that they wei-e of pure Hellenic blood, and were probably the 
descendants of the old inhabitants, who had offered the most obstinate 
resistance to the Dorians, and had therefore, been reduced to slavery.* 
In the earlier times they appear to have been treated with comparative 
miildness, but as their numbers increased they became objects of greater 
suspicion to their masters, and were subjected to the most wanton and op- 

* The common account derives the name of Helots (EiXcores) from the town of Helos 
("EXoy) in the South of Laconia, the inhabitants of which had rebelled and been reduced to 
slavery. Others connect their name with eXrj, marshes, as if it signified inhabitants of At 
lowlands. Others, again, with more probability, explain EZXeures as meaning j)risoner$, 
from the root of eXciv, to take. 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OF LTCURGUS. 61 

pressive cruelty. They were compelled to wear a peculiar dress — a 
leather cap and a sheepskin — to distinguish them from the rest of the 
population ; every means was adopted to remind them of their inferior and 
degraded condition ; and it is said they were often forced to make them- 
selves drunk, as a warning to the Spartan youth. Whatever truth there 
may be in these and similar tales, it is certain that the wanton and impoli- 
tic oppressions of the Spartans produced in the minds of the Helots a deep- 
seated and inveterate detestation of their masters. They were always 
ready to seize any opportunity of rising against their oppressors, and would 
gladly " have eaten the flesh of the Spartans raw." Hence Sparta was 
always in apprehension of a revolt of the Helots, and had recourse to the 
most atrocious means for removing any who had excited their jealousy 
or their fears. Of this we have a memorable instance in the secret service, 
called Gryptla,* which authorized a select body of Spartan youths to range 
the country in all directions, armed with daggers, and secretly to assassi- 
nate such of the Helots as were considered formidable. Sometimes, how- 
ever, the Helots, who had distinguished themselves by their bravery in 
war, received their freedom from the government ; but in that case they 
formed a distinct body in the state, known at the time of the Pelopon- 
nesian war by the name of Neodamodes. f 

§ 10. The ftmctions of the Spartan government were distributed among 
two kings, a senate of thirty members, a popular assembly, and an execu- 
tive directory of five men called the Ephors. This political constitution is 
ascribed to Lycurgus ; but there is good reason for believing that the 
Ephors were added at a l9,ter time ; and there cannot be any doubt that 
the senate and the popular assembly were handed down to the Spartans 
from the Heroic Age, and merely received some modification and regula- 
tions from Lycurgus. 

At the head of the state were the two hereditary kings. The existence of 
a pair of kings was peculiar to Sparta, and is said to have arisen from the 
accidental cii-cumstance of Aristodemus having left twin sons, Eurysthenes 
and Procles. + This division of the royal power naturally tended to 
weaken its influence, and to produce jealousies and dissensions between the 
two kings, who constantly endeavored to thwart each other. The royal 
power was on the decline during the whole historical period, and the 
authority of the kings was gradually usurped by the Ephors, who at length 
obtained the entire control of the government, and reduced the kings to a 
state of humiliation and dependence. Originally the Spartan kings were 
the real and not the nominal chiefs of the state, and exercised most of the 
functions of the monarchs of the Heroic Age. In later times the most 

* KpvTTTeia, a secret commission, from KpyrrTO), hide, conceal. 
f NeoSa/AcbSeiy : that is, newly enfranchised. 
X See above, p. 32. 



62 HISTOKT OF GREECE. [Chap. VII 

important of the prerogatives which they were allowed to retain was the 
supreme command of the military force on foreign expeditions. But even 
in this privilege their authority was restricted at a later time by the pres- 
ence of two out of the five Ephors. Although the pohtical power of the 
kings was thus curtailed, they possessed many important privileges, and 
were always treated with the profoundest honor and respect. They were 
regarded by the people with a feeling of religious reverence, as the descend- 
ants of the mighty hero Hercules, and were thus supposed to connect the 
entire state with the gods. They were the high-priests of the nation, and 
every month offered sacrifices to Jove on behalf of the people. They pos- 
sessed ample domains in various parts of Laconia, and received frequent 
presents on many public occasions. Their death was lamented as a public 
calamity, and their funeral was solemnized by the most striking obsequies. 

The Senate, called Gerusia,* or the Council of Elders, consisted of thirty 
members, among whom the two kings were included. They were not 
chosen under sixty years of age, and they held the ofiSce for life. They 
possessed considerable, power, and were the only real check upon the 
authority of the Ephors. They discussed and prepared aU measures 
which were to be brought before the popular assembly, and had some 
share in the general administration of the state. But the most important 
of their functions was, that they were judges in all criminal cases affecting 
the life of a Spartan citizen, without being bound by any written code. 

The Popular Assembly was of little importance, and appears to have 
been usually summoned only as a matter of form, for the election of certain 
magistrates, for passing laws, and for determining upon peace and war. It 
would appear that open discussion was not allowed, and that the assembly 
rarely came to a division. Such a popular assembly as existed at Athens, 
in which all public measures were exposed to criticism and comment, 
would have been contrary to one of the first principles of the Spartan gov- 
ernment in historical times, which was characterized by the extreme 
secrecy of all its proceedings. 

The Ephors may be regarded as the representatives of the popular 
assembly. They were elected annually from the general body of Spartan 
citizens, and seem to have been originally appointed to protect the interests 
and Uberties of the people against the encroachments of the kings and the 
senate. -'They correspond in many respects to the tribunes of the people 
at Rome. Their functions were at first Hmited and of small importance ; 
but in the end the whole political power became centred in their hands. 
They were thus the real rulers of the state, and their orders were submis- 
sively obeyed by all classes in Sparta. Their authority was of a despotic 
nature, and they exercised it without responsibility. They had the entire 
management of the internal as well as of the foreign affairs of the state ; 

* Tfpovata. 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OP LTCURGUS. 6S 

they formed a court to decide upon causes of great importance; they 
dismissed at their pleasure subordinate magistrates, and imposed upon 
them fines and imprisonment; they even arrested the kings, and either 
fined them on their own authority, or brought them to trial before the 
senate. 

It will be seen from the preceding account that the Spartan government 
was in reality a close oligarchy, in which the kings and the senate, as well 
as the people, were alike subject to the irresponsible authority of the five 
Ephors. 

§ 11. The most important part of the legislation of Lycurgus did not 
relate to the political constitution of Sparta, but to the discipline and edu- 
cation of the citizens. It was these which gave Sparta her peculiar char- 
acter, and distinguished her in so striking a manner from ah the other 
states of Greece. In modern times it has been usually held that the state 
exists for the citizen, and that the great object of the state is to secure the 
citizen in the enjoyment of his life and his property. In Sparta, on the 
contrary, the citizen existed only for the state, and was bound to devote to 
its honor and glory, not only aU his time, affections, and energies, but to 
sacrifice to its interests his property and his life. "We have ah-eady seen 
that the position of the Spartans, surrounded by numerous enemies, whom 
they only held in subjection by the sword, compelled them to be a nation 
of soldiers. Lycurgus determined that they should be nothing else ; and 
the great object of his whole system was to cultivate a martial spirit, and 
to give them a training which would make them invincible in battle. To 
accomplish this, the education of a Spartan was placed under the control of 
the state from his earliest boyhood, and he continued to be under public 
inspection to his old age. 

Every child after bii'th was exhibited to public view, and if deemed 
deformed and weakly, and unfit for a future life of labor and fatigue, was 
exposed to perish on Mount Taygetus. At the age of seven he was taken 
from his mother's care, and handed over to the public classes. His train- 
ing was under the special charge of an officer nominated by the state,* and 
was subject to the general superintendence of the elders. He was not only 
taught all the gymnastic games, which would give vigor and strength to 
his body, and all ''\e exercises and movements required from the Lacedae- 
monian soldiers in the field, but he was also subjected to severe bodily 
discipline, and was compelled to submit to hardships and suffering without 
repining or complaint. One of the tests to which the fortitude of the 
Spartan youths was subjected was a cruel scourging at the altar of Ar- 
temis (Diana), until their blood gushed forth and covered the altar of the 
goddess. It was indicted publicly, before the eyes of their parents and in the 
presence of the whole city ; and many were known to have died under the 

* Called FoEdonomus (TraiBovofMos)- 



■64 HISTOET OF GKEECE. [Chap. YJl. 

lash without uttering a complaining murmur. No means were neglected 
to prepare them for the hardships and stratagems of war. They were 
obHged to wear the same garment winter and summer, and endure hun- 
ger and thirst, heat and cold. They were purposely allowed an insuffi- 
cient quantity of food, but were permitted to make up the deficiency by 
hunting in the woods and mountains of Laconia. They were even en- 
couraged to steal whatever they could ; but if they were caught in the 
fact, they were severely punished for their want of dexterity. Plutarch 
tells us a story of a boy, who, having stolen a fox, and hid it under his 
garment, chose rather to let it tear out his very bowels than be detected 
in the theft. 

The literary education of a Spartan youth was of a most restricted kind. 
He was taught to despise literature as unworthy of a warrior, while the 
study of eloquence and philosophy, which were cultivated at Athens with 
such extraordinary success, was regarded at Sparta with contempt. Long 
speeches were a Spartan's abhorrence, and he was trained to express him- 
self with sententious brevity. He was not, however, an entire stranger to 
the humanizing influence of the Muses. He was taught to sing and play 
on the lyre ; but the strains which he learnt were either martial songs or 
hynans to the gods. Hence the warlike poems of Homer were popular at 
Sparta from an early period, and are even said to have been introduced 
into Peloponnesus by Lycurgus himself. The poet Tyrtteus was for the 
same reason received with high honoi's by the Spartans, notwithstanding 
their aversion to strangers ; while Archilochus was banished from the 
country because he had recorded in one of his poems his flight from the 
field of battle. 

A Spartan was not considered to have reached the fuU age of manhood 
tin he had completed his thirtieth year. He was then allowed to marry, 
to take part in the public assembly, and was eligible to the offices of the 
state. But he stiU continued under the public discipline, and was not 
permitted even to reside and take liis meals with his wife. The greater 
part of his time was occupied in gymnastic and military exercises ; he 
took his meals with his comrades at the public mess, and he slept at 
night in the public barracks. It was not till he had reached his sixtieth 
year that he was released from the pubhc discipline "-nd from military 
service. 

The pubhc mess — called Syssitia * — is said to have been instituted 
by Lycurgus to prevent all indulgence of the appetite. Public tables were 
provided, at which every male citizen was obliged to take his meals. Each 
table accommodated fifteen persons, who ' formed a separate mess, mto 
which no new member was admitted, except by the unanimous consent of 



* 'SvcraiTLa, that is, eating or messing together or in common. The public mess was also 
called Plnditia {to. ^etdiria), or frugal meals. 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OF LTCURGUS. 65 

the whole company. Each sent monthly to the common stock a specified 
quantity of barley-meal, wine, cheese, and figs, and a little money to buy 
flesh and fish. No distinction of any kind was allowed at these frugal 
meals. Meat was only eaten occasionally ; and one of the principal dishes 
was black broth. Of what it consisted we do not know. The tyrant 
Dionysius found it very palatable ; but, as the cook told him, the broth 
was nothing without the seasoning of fatigue and hunger. 

§ 12. The Spartan women in their earher years were subjected to a 
course of training almost as rigorous as that of the men. They were not 
viewed as a part of the family, but as a part of the state. Their great 
duty was to give Sparta a vigorous race of citizens, and not to discharge 
domestic and household duties. They were therefore trained in gymnastic 
exercises, and contended with each other in running, wrestling, and box- 
ing. The youths were present at these exercises, and the maidens were 
allowed in like manner to witness those of the youths. The two sexes 
were thus brought into a close intercourse in a manner unknown to the 
rest of Greece ; but it does not appear to have been followed by any in- 
jurious consequences, and the morals of the Spartan women were probably 
purer than those of any other females in Greece. At the age of twenty 
a Spartan woman usually married, and she was no longer subjected to the 
public discipline. Although she enjoyed httle of her husband's society, she 
was treated by him with deep respect, and was allowed a greater degree 
of liberty than was tolerated in other Grecian states. Hence she took a 
lively interest in the welfare and glory of her native land, and was ani- 
mated by an earnest and lofty spirit of patriotism. The Spartan mother 
had reason to be proud of herself and of her children. When a woman 
of another country said to Gorge, the wife of Leonidas, " The Spartan 
women alone rule the men," she replied, " The Spartan women alone 
bring forth men." Their husbands and their sons were fired by their sym- 
pathy to deeds of heroism, and were deterred from yielding to the foe by 
the certain reproaches and contempt which awaited them at their domestic 
hearths. " Return either with your shield, or upon it," was their exhor- 
tation to their sons, when going to battle ; and after the fatal day of Leuc- 
tra, those mothers whose sons had fallen returned thanks to the gods ; wliile 
those were the bitter sufferers whose sons had survived that disgraceful 
day. The triumphant resignation of a Spartan mother at the heroic death 
of her sou, and her fierce wrath when he proved a recreant coward, are 
weU expressed in two striking poems of the Greek Anthology : — 

" Eight sons Dem^neta at Sparta's call 
Sent forth to' fight; one tomb received them all. 
No tear she shed but shouted, ' Victory ! 
• Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee.' " 

" A Spartan, his companion slain, 
Alone from battle fled; 

9 



66 HISTORY OF GREECE. ' [ChAP. VIL 

His mother, kindling with disdain 

That she had borne him, struck him dead; 
For courage and not birth alone, 
In Sparta, testifies a son ! " * 

§ 13. One of the most celebrated measures ascribed to Lycurgus by 
later writers was his redi vision of the land of the country. It is related 
that the disorders of the state arose mainly from the gross inequality of 
property : the greater part of the land was in the hands of a few rich 
men, whilst the majority of the people were left in hopeless misery. Id 
order to remedy this fearful state of things, he resolved to make a new 
division of lands, that the citizens might all Hve together in perfect equali- 
ty. Accordingly, he redistributed the territory belonging to Sparta into 
nine thousand equal lots, and the remainder of Laconia into thirty thou- 
sand equal lots, and assigned to each Spartan citizen one of the former of 
these lots, and to each Perioecus one of the latter. 

It is, however, very questionable whether Lycurgus ever made any 
division of the landed property of Laconia. It is not mentioned by any of 
the earlier writers, and we find in historical times great inequality of 
property among the Spartans. It is suggested with great probability by 
Mr. Grote, that the idea of an equal division of landed property by Lycur- 
gus seems to have arisen in the third century before the Christian era, 
when an attempt was made by Agis and Cleomenes, kings of Sparta, to 
rescue their country from the state of degradation into which it had 
Bunk. From the time of the Persian war, the number of the Spartan citi- 
zens was constantly declining, and the property accumulating in a few 
hands. The number of citizens, reckoned by Herodotus at eight thousand, 
had dwindled down in the time of Aristotle to one thousand, and had been 
still further reduced in that of Agis to seven hundred ; and in the reign 
of this king one hundred alone possessed nearly the whole of the landed 
property in the state, while the remainder were miserably poor. At 
the same time the old disciphne had degenerated into a mere form ; num- 
bers of strangers had settled in the city ; and Sparta had long lost her an- 
cient influence over her neighbors. The humiliating condition of their 
country roused Agis and other ardent spirits to endeavor to restore Sparta 
to her former glories ; and for this purpose they resolved to establish again 
the discipline of Lycurgus in its pristine vigor, and to make a fresh divis- 
ion of the landed property. Agis perished in his attempt to carry these 
reforms into effect ; but a similar revolution was shortly afterwards ac- 
complished by Cleomenes. It was in the state of pubhc feeling which 
gave birth to the projects of Agis and Cleomenes, that the idea arose of 
an equal division of property having been one of the ancient institutions 
of their great lawgiver. The discipline and education of Lycurgus tended 

* See Andwhgia Polyghita, edited by Dr. Wellesley, pp. 191, 202. 



B. C. 776.] LEGISLATION OF LYCimGUS. 67 

greatly to introduce equality among the rich and the poor in their habits 
and enjoyments ; and hence we can easily understand how this equality 
suggested to a subsequent age an equality of property as hkewise one of 
the institutions of Lycurgus. 

§ 14 It has been already remarked, that the Spartans were not allowed 
to engage in any trade or manufactures ; and that all occupations, pursued 
for the sake of gain, were left in the hands of the Perioeci. We are told 
that Lycurgus therefore banished from Sparta all gold and sUver money, 
and allowed nothing but bars of iron to pass in exchange for every corr- 
modity. It is, however, absurd to ascribe such a regulation to Lycurgus, 
since silver money was first coined in Greece by Pheidon of Argos in the 
succeeding generation, and gold money was first coined in Asia, and was 
very Kttle known in Greece, even in the time of the Peloponnesian war. 
In this case, as in others, the usage of later times was converted into a 
primitive institution of the lawgiver. As the Spartans were not allowed 
to engage in commerce, and all luxury and display in dress, furniture, and 
food was forbidden, they had very little occasion for a circulating medium, 
and iron money was found suflUcient for their few wants. But this prohi- 
bition of the precious metals only made the Spartans more anxious to ob- 
tain them ; and even in the times of their greatest glory the Spartans were 
the most venal of the Greeks, and could rarely resist the temptation of a 
pecuniary bribe. 

The Spartans were averse to aU changes, both in their government and 
their customs. In order to preserve their national character and the 
primitive simplicity of their habits, Lycurgus is said to have forbidden all 
strangers to reside at Sparta without special permission. For the same 
reason the Spartans were not allowed to go abroad without leave of the 
magistrate. 

Caution was also another characteristic of the Spartans. Hence we are 
told that they never pursued an enemy farther than was necessary to make 
themselves sure of the victory. They were also forbidden by Lycurgus to 
make frequent war upon the same foes, lest the latter should learn their 
peculiar tactics. 

§ 15. The city of Sparta was never fortified, even in the days of her 
greatest power, and continued to consist of five distinct quarters, which 
were originally separate villages, and which were never united into one 
regular town. It is said that Lycurgus had commanded them not to sur- 
round their city with walls, but to trust for their defence to their own 
military prowess. Another and a better reason for the absence of walls is 
to be sought in the admirable site of the city, in the midst of a territory 
almost inaccessible to invaders. The northern and western frontiers of 
Laconia were protected by lofty ranges of mountains, through which there 
were only a few difficult passes ; while the rocky nature of its eastern 
coast protected it from invasion by sea. Sparta was situated inland, in 



fiS HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. VII, 

the middle of the valley of the Eurotas ; and aU the principal passes of 
Laconia led to the city, which was thus placed in the best position for the 
defence of the country. There can be no doubt that one of the causes of 
the Spartan power is to be traced to the strength of its frontiers and to the 
site of Sparta itself. 

§ 16. The legislation of Lycurgus was followed by important results. It 
made the Spartans a body of professional soldiers, weU trained and well 
disciplined, at a time when military training and discipline were Httle 
known, and almost unpractised in the other states of Greece. The conse- 
quence was the rapid growth of the political power of Sparta, and the sub- 
jugation of the neighboring states. At the time of Lycurgus the Spartans 
held only a small portion of Laconia : they were merely a garrison in the 
heart of an enemy's country. Their first object was to make themselves 
masters of Laconia, in which they finally succeeded after a severe struggle. 
The military ardor and love of war which had been implanted in them by 
the institutions of Lycurgus continued to animate them after the subjuga^ 
tion of Laconia, and led them to seek new conquests. We have abeady 
seen that they offered a successful resistance to the formidable power of 
Pheidon of Argos. They now began to cast longing eyes upon the posses- 
sions of their Dorian brethren in Messenia, and to meditate the conquest 
of that fertile country. 




Head of Lycurgus. 



Chap. VIII.] history of sparta. 69 




Early Greek Armor, from Vase-Paintings. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

msrORT OF SPARTA. — THE MESSENIAN, ARCA.DIAN, AND ARGIVE WARS. 

1 1. Authorities for the History of the Messenian War. ^ 2. The First ^lessenian War, b. c. 
743-724. 4 3. The Second Messenian War, b. c. 685-668. Aristomenes, tlie Messenian 
Hero, and Tyrtseus, the Spartan Hero, of this War. § 4. Wars between the Spartans 
and Arcadians. Conquest of the Southern Part of Arcadia by Sparta. War between 
Sparta and Tegea. ^ 5. Wars between the Spartans and Argives. Battle of the Three 
Hundred Champions to decide the Possession of Cynuria. 

§ 1. The early wars of Sparta were carried on againai the Messeniaus, 
Arcadians, and Argives. They resulted in making Sparta the undisputed 
mistress of two thirds of Peloponnesus, and the most powerful of the 
Grecian states. Of these wars the two waged against Messenia were the 
most celebrated and the most important. They were both long protracted 
and obstinately contested. They both ended in the victory of Sparta, 
and in the subjugation of Messenia. These facts are beyond dispute, 
and are attested by the contemporary poet Tyrtaeus. But of the details 
of these wars we have no trustworthy narrative. The account of them 
which is inserted in most histories of Greece is taken from Pausauias, 
a writer who hved in the second century of the Christian era. He 
derived his narrative of the first war from a prose writer of the name 
of Myron, who did not live earlier than the third century before the Chris- 
tian era; and he took his account of the second from a poet called 
Rhianus, a native of Crete, who lived about b. c. 220. Both these writers 
were separated from the events which they narrated by a period of five 



70 HISTORY OF GEEECE. I^Chap. VUl 

hundred years, and probably derived their materials from the stories cur- 
rent among the Messenians after their restoration to their native land by 
Epaminondas. Information of an historical character could not be ex- 
pected from the work of Rhianus, which was an epic poem celebrating the 
exploits of the great hero Aristomenes. We must not, therefore, receive 
the common account of the Messenian wars as a real history ; and we 
shall consequently give only a brief outline of the narrative of Pausanias. 
The dates of the two wars camiot be fixed with certainty, Pausanias 
makes the first last from b. c. 743 to 722, and the second from B. c. 685 
to 668. Both of these dates are probably too early. 

§ 2. The real cause of the first Messenian war was doubtless the lust of 
the Spartans for the fertile territories of their neighbors. But its origin 
is narrated in the following manner. On the heights of Mount Tayge- 
tus, which separated the two kingdoms, there was a temple of Artemis^ 
(Diana), common to the Spartans and Messenians. It was here that the 
Spartan king, Teleclus, was slaia by the Messenians; but the two people 
gave a different version of the cause of his death. The Spartans asserted 
that Teleclus was murdered by the Messenians, while he was attempting 
to defend some Spartan virgins, whom he was conducting to the temple, 
from the insults of the Messenian youth. The Messenians, on the other 
hand, averred that Teleclus had dressed up young men as virgins with con- 
cealed daggers, and that Teleclus was slain in the affray which ensued upon 
the discovery of the plot. The war did not, however, immediately break 
out ; and the direct cause of it was owing to a private quarrel, Polychares, 
a distinguished Messenian, who had gained the prize at the Olympic 
games, had been grossly injured by the Spartan Eusephnus, who had 
robbed him of his cattle and murdered his son. Being unable to obtain 
redress from the Spartan government, Polychares took the revenge into 
his own hands, and killed all the Lacedaemonians that came in his way. 
The Spartans demanded the surrender of Polychares, but the Messenians 
refused to give him up. Thereupon the Spartans determined upon war. 
They silently prepared their forces ; and without any formal declaration of 
war, they crossed the frontier, surprised the fortress of Amphea, and put 
the inhabitants to the sword. 

Thus commenced the first Messenian war. Euphaes, who was then 
king of Messenia, carried on the war with energy and vigor. For the first 
four years the Lacedsemonians made little progress ; but in the fifth a great 
battle was fought, and although its result was indecisive, the Messenians 
did not venture to risk another engagement, and retired to the strongly- 
fortified mountain of Ith5me. In their distress they sent to consult the 
oracle at Delphi, and received the appalling answer, that the salvation of 
Messenia required the sacrifice of a virgin of the house of ^pytus * to the 

♦ The royal family of Messenia was descended from ^pytns, who was a son of Gros- 
phontes. 



B.C. 685.] SECOND MESSENIAN WAR. 71 

gods of the lower world. Ai'istodemus offered his own daughter as the 
victim ; but a young Messenian, who loved the maiden, attempted to save 
her life bj declaring that she was about to become a mother. Her father, 
enraged at this assertion, killed his daughter with his own hand and opened 
her body to refute the calumny. Although the demands of the oracle had 
not been satisfied, since this was a murder and not a sacrifice, the Spar- 
tans were so disheartened by the news, that they abstained from attacking 
the Messenians for some years. In the thirteenth year of the war, the Spar- 
tan king, Theopompus, marched against Ithome, and a second gi*eat battle 
was fought, but the result was again indecisive. Euphaes fell in the ac- 
tion ; and Ai-istodemus, who was chosen king in his place, prosecuted the 
war with vigor and abihty. In the fifth year of his reign a third great 
battle was fought, in which the Corinthians fought on the side of the Spar- 
tans, and the Arcadians and Sicyonians on the side of the Messenians. 
This time the Messenians gained a decisive victory, and the Lacedemoni- 
ans were driven back into their own territory. They now sent to ask 
advice of the Delphian oracle, and were promised success upon using 
stratagem. They therefore had recourse to fraud; and at the same 
time various, prodigies dismayed the bold spirit of Aristodemus. His 
daughter too appeared to him in a dream, showed to him her wounds, and 
summoned him away. Seeing that his country was doomed to destruction, 
Aristodemus slew himself on his daughter's tomb. Shortly afterwards, in 
the twentieth year of the war, the Messenians abandoned Ithome, which 
the Lacedaemonians razed to the ground, and the whole country became 
subject to Sparta. Many of the inhabitants fled into Arcadia, and the 
priestly families withdrew to Eleusis, in Attica. Those who remained in 
the country were treated with great severity. They were reduced to the 
condition of Helots, and were compelled to pay to their masters half of the 
produce of their lands. This is attested by the authority of Tyrtgeus, who 
says, " Like asses worn down by heavy burdens, they were compelled to 
make over to their masters an entire half of the produce of their fields, 
and to come in the garb of woe to Sparta, themselves and their wives, as 
mourners at the decease of the kings and principal persons." 

§ 3. For thirty-nine years the Messenians endured this degrading yoke. 
At the end of this time (b. c. 685) they took up arms against their op- 
pressors, having found a leader in Aristomenes, of Andania, sprung from 
the royal line of JEpytus. The exploits of- this hero form the great sub- 
ject of the second Messenian war. It would appear that most of the states 
in Peloponnesus took part in this struggle. The Argives, Ai-cadians, 
Sicyonians, and Pisatans were the principal allies of the Messenians ; but 
the Corinthians sent assistance to Sparta. The first battle was fought 
before the arrival of the allies on either side ; and though it was indecisive, 
the valor of Aristomenes struck fear into the hearts of the Spartans. To 
frighten the enemy still more, the hero crossed the frontier, entered Sparta 



72 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. YUl 

by niglit, and affixed a sMeld to the temple of Athena Chalcioecus (Mi- 
nerva of the Brazen House), with the inscription, " Dedicated by Aris- 
tomenes to the goddess from the Spartan spoils." 

The Spartans in alarm sent to Delphia for advice. The god bade them 
apply to Athens for a leader. Fearing to disobey the oracle, but with 
the view of rendering no real assistance, the Athenians sent Tyrtseus of 
Aphidnee, who is represented in the popular legend as a lame man and a 
schoolmaster. The Spartans received their new leader with due honor ; 
and he was not long in justifying the credit of the oracle. His martial songs 
roused the fainting courage of the Spartans, and animated them to new 
efforts against the foe.* The Spartans showed their gratitude by making 
him a citizen of their state. So efficacious were his poeins, that to them 
is mainly ascribed the final success of the Spartans. Hence he appears 
as the great hero of Sparta during the second Messenian war. Some of 
his celebrated songs have come down to us, and the following war-march 
is a specimen : — 

" To the field, to the field, gaUant Spartan band, 
Worthy sons, like your sires, of our warlike land ! 
Let each arm be prepared for its part in the fight, 
Fix the shield on the left, poise the spear with the right, 
Let no care for your lives in your bosoms find place, 
No such care knew the heroes of old Spartan race." f 

Encouraged by the strains of Tyrtaeus, the Spartans again marched 
against the Messenians. But they were not at first successful. A great 
battle was fought at the Boar's Grave in the plain of Stenyclerus, in which 
the allies of both sides were present. The Spartans were defeated with 
great loss ; and the Messenian maidens of a later day used to sing how 
" Aristomenes pursued the flying Lacedgemonians down to the mid-plain 
of Stenyclerus, and up to the very summit of the mountain." In the third 
year of the war another great battle was fought, in which the Messenians 
suffered a signal defeat, in consequence of the treachery of Aristocrates, 
the king of the Arcadian Orchomenus. So great was the loss of the 
Messenians, that Aristomenes no longer ventured to meet the Spartans in 
the open field ; he therefore resolved to follow the example of the Mes- 
senian leaders in the former war, and concentrate his strength in a forti- 
fied spot. For this purpose he chose the mountain fortress of Ira, and 
there he continued to prosecute the war for eleven years. The Spartans 
encamped at the foot of the mountain ; but Aristomenes frequently sallied 
from his fortress, and ravaged the lands of Laconia with fire and sword. 
It is unnecessaiy to relate all the wonderful exploits of this hero in 
his various incursions. Thrice did he offer to Jove Ithomates the sacri- 



* " Tyrtseusque mares animos in Martia beUa 
Versibus exacuit." — Hor. Ars Poet. 402. 

t Mure's History of Greek Literature, Vol. IIL p. 195. 



B. C. 668.] SECOND MESSENIAN WAE. 73 

fice called Hecatomplionia, reserved for the warrior who had slain a 
hundred enemies with his own hand. Thrice he was taken prisoner ; on 
two occasions he burst his bonds, but on the third he was carried to Spar- 
ta, and thrown with his fifty companions into a deep pit, called Ceadas. 
His comrades were aU killed by the fall ; but Aristomenes reached the 
bottom unhurt. He saw, however, no means of escape, and had re- 
signed himself to death ; but on the third day, perceiving a fox creeping 
among the bodies, he grasped its tail, and, following the animal as it strug- 
gled to escape, discovered an opening in the rock. Through the favor 
of the gods the hero thus escaped, and on the next day was again at Ira, 
to the surprise alike of friends and foes. But his single prowess was 
not sufficient to avert the ruin of his country ; he had incurred, moreover, 
the anger of the Dioscuri or the Twin gods ; and the favor of Heaven was 
therefore turned from him. One night the Spartans surprised Ira, while 
Aristomenes was disabled by a wound ; but he collected the bravest of 
his followers, and forced his way through the enemy. He took refuge ia 
Arcadia, where \e was hospitably received ; but the plan which he had 
formed for surprising Sparta was betrayed by Aristocrates, whom his 
countrymen stoned for his treachery. 

Many of the exiled Messenians went to Rhegium, in Italy, under the 
sons of Aristomenes, but the hero himself finished his days in Rhodes. 
His memory long lived in the hearts of his countrymen ; and later legends 
related, that in the fatal battle of Leuctra, which destroyed for ever the 
Lacedaemonian power, the hero was seen scattering destruction among the 
Spartan troops. 

The second Messenian war was terminated by the complete subjugation 
of the Messenians, who again became the serfs of their conquerors (b. c. 
668). In this condition they remained tUl the restoration of their iade- 
pendence by Epameinondas. n the year 369 b. c. During the whole of the 
intervening period the Messenians disappear from history. The coun- 
try called Messenia in the map was in reality a portion of Laconia, which, 
after the second Messenian war, extended across the South of Peloponne- 
sus from the eastern to the western sea. 

§ 4. Of the history of the wars between the Spartans and Arcadians we 
have fewer details. The Spartans made various attempts to extend their 
dominion over Arcadia. Hence the Arcadians afforded assistance to the 
Messenians in their struggle against Sparta, and they evinced their sym- 
pathy for this gallant people by putting to death Aristocrates of Orchome- 
nus, as has been already related. The conquest of Messenia was prob- 
ably followed by the subjugation of the southern part of Arcadia. We 
know that the northern frontier of Laconia, consisting of the districts 
called Scirltis, Beleminatis, Maleatis, and Caryatis, originally belonged 
to Arcadia, and was conquered by the Lacedaemonians at an early period. 

The Lacedasmonians, however, did not meet with equal success in their 
10 



74 HISTOKT OF GREECE. [Chap. VIll 

attempts against Tegea. This city was situated in the southeastern comei 
of Arcadia, on the very frontier of Laconia. It possessed a brave and war- 
like population, and defied the Spartan power for more than two centu- 
ries. As early as the reign of Charilaiis, the nephew of Lycurgus, the 
Lacedaemonians had invaded the territory of Tegea ; but they were not 
only defeated with great loss, but this king was taken prisoner with all 
his men who had survived the battle. Long afterwards, in the reign of 
Leon and Agesicles (about b. c. 580), the Lacedaemonians again marched 
agamst Tegea, but were again defeated with great loss, and were com- 
pelled to work as slaves in the very chains which they had brought with 
them for the Tegeatans. For a whole generation their arms continued 
unsuccessful ; but in the reign of Anaxandrides and Ariston, the succes- 
sors of Leon and Agesicles (about B. c. 560), they were at length able to 
bring the long-protracted struggle to a close. In their distress, they had 
applied as usual to the Delphic oracle for advice, and had been promised 
success if they could obtain the bones of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. 
The directions of the god enabled them to find the remains of the hero at 
Tegea : and by a skilful stratagem one of their citizens succeeded in car- 
rying the holy relics to Sparta. The tide of the war now turned. The 
Tegeatans were constantly defeated, and were at length obhged to ac- 
knowledge the supremacy of Sparta. They were not, however, reduced 
to subjection, like the Messenians. They still continued masters of their 
own city and territory, and only became dependent allies of Sparta. 

§ 5. The history of the early struggle between Argos and Sparta is 
quite unknown. We have already seen that the whole eastern coast of 
Peloponnesus had originally belonged to Argos, or the confederacy over 
which this city presided. The Lacedaemonians, however, succeeded not 
only in conquermg all the eastern coast of Laconia, but also in annexing 
to their territory the district of Cynuria,* on their northern frontier, which 
had originally formed part of the dominions of Argos. It is uncertain at 
what time the Lacedemonians obtained this important acquisition ; but 
the attempt of the Argives to recover it in 547 b. c'. led to one of the most 
celebrated combats in early Grecian history. It was agreed between the 
Laceda3monians and Argives that the possession of the territory should be 
decided by a combat between three hundred chosen champions on either 
side. So 'fierce was the conflict, that only one Spartan and two Argives 
survived. The latter, supposing that all their opponents had been slain, 
hastened home with the news of victory ; but Othryades, the Spartan war- 
rior, remained on the field, and spoiled the dead bodies of the enemy. 
Both sides claimed the victory, whereupon a general battle ensued, in 
which the Argives were defeated. The brave Othryades slew himself on 

* The plain called Thyreatis, from the town of Thyrea, was the most imjiortant part of 
Cynuria. 



B. C. 547.] 



"VTAE BETWEEN SPARTA AND ARGOS. 



7fi 



the field of battle, being ashamed to return to Sparta as the one survivor 
of her three hundred champions. This victory secured the Spartans in 
the possession of Cynuria, and effectually humbled the power of Argos. 

Sparta was now by far the most powerful of the Grecian states. Her 
own territory, as we have already seen, included the whole southern por- 
tion of Peloponnesus ; the Arcadians were her subject alKes ; and Argos 
had suffered too much from her recent defeat to offer any further resist- 
ance to her formidable neighbor. North of the Isthmus of Corinth there 
was no state whose power could compete with that of Sparta. Athens was 
still suffering from the civil dissensions which had led to the usurpation of 
Peisistratus, and no one could have anticipated at this time the rapid and 
extraordinary growth of this state, which rendered her before long the 
rival of Sparta. 




76 



HISTOKT OF GREECE. 



[Chap. IX 




Leaden Sling-bullets and Arrow-heads, found at Athens, Marathon, and Leontini. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE AGE OF THE DESPOTS. 

I 1. Abolition of Royalty throughout Greece, except in Sparta. § 2. Establishment of the 
Oligarchical Governments. § 3. Overthrow of the Oligarchies by the Despots. Character 
of the Despots, and Causes of their Fall. § 4. Contest between Oligarchy and Democ- 
racy on the Removal of the Despots. § 5. Despots of Sicyon. History of Cleisthenes. 
§ 6. Despots of Corinth. History of Cypselus and Periander. § 7. Conflicts of the 
Oligarchical and Democratical Parties at Megara. Despotism of Theagenes. The Poet 
Theognis. 



§ 1. Sparta was the only state in Greece which continued to retain the 
kingly form of government during the brilliant period of Grecian history. 
In all other parts of Greece royalty had been abolished at an early age, 
and various forms of republican government established in its stead. In 
all of these, though differing widely from each other in many of their insti- 
tutions, hatred of monarchy was a universal feeling. This change in the 
popular mind deserves our consideration. In the Heroic Age, as we have 
already seen, monarchy was the only form of government known. At the 
head of every state stood a king, who had derived his authority from the 
gods, and whose commands were reverently obeyed by his people. The- 
only check upon his authority was the council of the chiefs, and even they 
rarely ventured to interfere with his rule. But soon after the commence- 
ment of the first Olympiad this reverential feeUng towards the king dis- 
appears, and his authority and his functions are transferred to the council 
of chiefs. 

This important revolution was owing mainly to the smaUness of the 
Grecian states. It must be constantly remembered that each political 
community consisted only of the inhabitants of a single city. Among so 
Bmall a body the king could not surround himself with any i)omp or 



Chap. IX.] THE GRECIAN DESPOTS. 77 

mystery. He moved as a man among his fellow-men ; his faults and hia 
foibles became known to all ; and as the Greek mind developed and en- 
larged itself, his subjects lost all belief in his divine right to their obedience. 
They had no extent of territory which rendered it advisable to maintain a 
king for the purpose of preserving their union ; and consequently, when 
they lost respect for his person, and faith in his divine right, they abohshed 
the dignity altogether. This change appears to have been accomphshed 
without any sudden or violent revolutions. Sometimes, on the death of a 
king, his son was acknowledged as ruler for life, or for a certain number 
of years, Avith the title of Archon ; * and sometimes the royal race was set 
aside altogether, and one of the nobles was elected to supply the place of 
the king, with the title of Prytanis, or President.f In all cases, however, 
the new magistrates became more or less responsible to the nobles ; and in 
course of time they were elected for a brief period from the whole body of 
the nobles, and were accountable to the latter for the manner in which they 
discharged the duties of their office. 

§ 2. The abolition of royalty was thus followed by an Oligarchy, or the 
government of the Few. This was the first form of repubhcanism in 
Greece. Democracy, or the government of the Many, was yet unknown ; 
and the condition of the general mass of the freemen appears to have been 
unaffected by the revolution. But it paved the way to greater changes. 
It taught the Greeks the important principle that the political power was 
vested in the citizens of the state. It is true that these were at first only 
a small portion of the freemen ; but their number might be enlarged ; and 
the idea could not fail to occur, that the power which had been transferred 
from the One to the Few might be still further extended from the Few to 
the Many. 

The nobles possessed the greater part of the land of the state, and were 
hence frequently distinguished by the name of Geomori or Gamori.t 
Their estates were cultivated by a rural and dependent population ; whilst 
they themselves lived in the city, and appear to have formed an exclu- 
sive order, transmitting their privileges to their sons alone. But besides 
this governing body and their rustic dependents, there existed two other 
classes, consistmg of small landed proprietors, who cultivated their fields 
with their own hands, and of artisans and traders residing in the town. 
These two classes were constantly increasing in numbers, wealth, and intel- 
ligence, and, consequently, began to demand a share in the government, 
from which they had liitherto been excluded. The ruling body meantime 
had remained stationary, or had even declined in numbers and in wealth ; 
and they had excited, moreover, the discontent of the people by the arbi- 
trary and oppressive manner in which they had exercised their authority. 
But it was not from the people that the oUgarchies received their first and 

* "Apxfiv- t npvraws. 

X Tewnopoi (Ionic), Tafiopot (Doric), land-oumers. 



78 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. IX 

greatest blow. They were generally overthrown by the usurpers, to 
whom the Greeks gave the name of Tyrants.* 

§ 3. The Greek word Tyrant does not correspond in meaning to the 
same word in the English language. It signifies simply an irresponsible 
ruler, and may therefore be more correctly rendered by the term Despot. 
The rise of the Despots seems to have taken place about the same time in 
a large number of the Greek cities. They begin to appear in the middle 
of the seventh century b. c. ; and in the course of the next hundred and 
fifty years (from B. c. 650 to 500) there were few cities in the Grecian 
world which escaped this revolution in their government. The growing 
discontent of the general body of the people afforded facilities to an am- 
bitio,us citizen to overthrow the existing oligarchy, and to make himself su- 
preme ruler of the state. In most cases the despots belonged to the nobles, 
but they acquired their power in various ways. The most frequent man- 
ner in which they became masters of the state was by espousing the cause 
of the commonalty, and making use of the strength of the latter to put down 
the ohgarchy by force. Sometimes, but more rarely, one of the nobles, 
who had been raised to the chief magistracy for a temporary period, 
availed himself of his position to retain his dignity permanently, in spite of 
his brother nobles. Thei-e was another class of irresponsible rulers to 
whom the name of ^symnetes,^ or Dictator, was given. The supreme 
power was voluntarily intrusted to him by the citizens, but only for a 
limited period, and in order to accomplish some important object, such as 
reconciling the various factions in the state. 

The government of most of the despots was oppressive and cruel. In 
many states they were at first popular with the general body of the citi- 
zens, who had raised them to power and were glad to see the humiliation 
of their former masters. But discontent soon began to arise ; the despot 
had recourse to violence to put down disaffection, and thus became an 
object of hatred to his fellow-citizens. In order to protect himself he 
called in the aid of foreign troops, and took up his residence in the acropolis, 
surrounded by his mercenaries. The most illustrious citizens were now 
exiled or put to death, and the government became in reality a tyranny in 
the modern sense of the word. Some of these despots erected magnificent 
pubHc works, either to gratify their own love of splendor and display, or 
with the express view of impoverishing their subjects. Others were 
patrons of literature and art, and sought to gaia popularity by inviting 
literary men to their court. But even those who exercised their sover-' 
eignty with moderation were never able to retain their popularity. The 
assumption of irresponsible power by one man had become abhorrent to 
the Greek mind. A person thus raising himself above the law was con- 
sidered to have forfeited all title to the protection of the law. He was 
regarded as the greatest of criminals, and his assassination was viewed as a 

* Tvpavvoi. ■{■ Atcrv/tj^TJjs. 



B. C. 595.^ THE DESPOTS OF SICTON. 79 

righteous and holj act. Hence few despots grew old in their government ; 
still fewer bequeathed their power to their sons ; and very rarely did the 
dynasty continue as long as the third generation. 

§ 4 Many of the despots in Greece were put down by the Lacedae- 
monians. The Spartan government, as we have already seen, was essen- 
tially an oligarchy ; and the Spartans were always ready to lend their 
powerful aid to the support or the establishment of the government of the 
Few. Hence they took an active part in the overthrow of the despots, 
with the intention of estabhshing the ancient ohgarchy in their place. 
But this rarely happened ; and they thus became unintentional instru- 
ments in promoting the principles of the popular party. The rule of the 
despot had broken down the distinctibn between the nobles and the general 
body of freemen ; and upon the removal of the despot it was found impos- 
sible in most cases to reinstate the former body of nobles in their ancient 
privileges. The latter, it is true, attempted to regain them, and were sup- 
ported in their attempts by Sparta. Hence arose a new struggle. The 
first contest after the abolition of royalty was between oligarchy and the 
despot ; the next, which now ensued, was between oligarchy and democracy. 

The history of Athens wUl afford the most striking illustration of the 
different revolutions of which we have been speaking; but there are 
some examples in the other Greek states which must not be passed over 
entirely. 

§ 5. The city of Sicyon, situated to the west of the Corinthian Isthmus, 
was governed by a race of despots for a longer period than any other 
Greek state. Their dynasty lasted for a hundred years, and is said to 
have been founded by Orthagoras, about b. c. 676. This revolution is 
worthy of notice, because Orthagoras did not belong to the ohgarchy. The 
latter consisted of a portion of the Dorian conquerors ; and Orthagoras, 
who belonged to the old inhabitants of the country, obtained the power by 
the overthrow of the Dorian oligarchy. He and his successors were doubt- 
less supported by the old population, and this was one reason of the long 
continuance of their power. The last of the dynasty was Cleisthenes, who 
was celebrated for his wealth and magnificence, and who gained the vic- 
tory in the chariot-race in the Pythian and Oljonpic games. He aided the 
Amphictyons in the sacred War against Cirrha (b. c. 595), and he was also 
engaged in hostilities with Argos. But the chief point in his history 
which claims our attention was his systematic endeavor to depress and dis- 
honor the Dorian tribes. It has been already remarked,* that the Dorians 
in all their settlements were divided into the three tribes of Hylleis, 
Pamphyli, and Dymanes. These ancient and venerable names he changed 
into new ones, derived from the sow, the ass, and the pig,t while he de- 
dared the superiority of his OAvn tribe by giving it the designation of 

« Above, Chap. VII. ^ 7. 
Hyatae ('Ydrai), Oneatae ('Ovearat), Choereate (XoipeoTot). 



80 HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap, IX. 



Archelai, or lords of the people. Cleisthenes appears to have continued 
despot till his death, which may be placed about b. c. 560. The dynasty- 
perished with him. He left no son ; but his daughter Agarista, whom so 
many suitors wooed, was married to the Athenian Megacles, of the great 
family of the AlcmseonidiB, and became the mother of Cleisthenes, the 
founder of the Athenian democracy after the expulsion of the Peisistratidae. 
§ 6. The despots of Corinth were still more celebrated. Their dynasty 
lasted seventy-four years. It was founded by Cypselus, who overthrew 
the oligarchy called the Bacchiadas in B. c. 655. His mother belonged 
to the Bacchiadze ; but as none of the race would marry her on account 
of her lameness, she espoused a man who did not belong to the ruling 
class. The Bacchiadge, having learnt that an oracle had declared that 
the issue of this marriage would prove their ruin, endeavored to mur- 
der the child; but his mother preserved him in a chest, from which 
he derived his name.* When he had grown up to manhood he came 
forward as the champion of the people against the nobles, and with their 
aid expelled the Bacchiad^e, and estabhshed himself as despot. He held 
his power for thirty years (b. c. 655 - 625), and transmitted it on his 
death to his son Periander. His government is said to have been mild 
and popular. 

, The sway of Periander, on the other hand, is universally represented as 
oppressive and cruel. Many of the ^tales related of him may be regarded 
as the calumnies of his enemies ; but there is good reason for beUeving that 
he ruled with a rod of iron. The way in which he treated the nobles is 
illustrated by a well-known tale, which has been transferred to the early 
history of Rome. Soon after his accession Periander is said to have sent 
to Thrasybulus, despot of Miletus, to ask him for advice as to the best 
mode of maintaining his power. Without giving an answer in writing, 
Thrasybulus led the messenger through a corn-field, cutting off, as he went, 
the tallest ears of corn. He then dismissed the messenger, telling him to 
inform his master how he had found him emjiloyed. The action was 
rightly interpreted by Periander, who proceeded to rid himself of the 
powerful nobles of the state. The anecdote, whether true or not, is an 
indication of the common opinion entertained of the government of Peri- 
ander. We are further told that he protected his person by a body-guard 
of mercenaries, and kept all rebellion in check by his rigorous measures. 
It is admitted on all hands that he possessed great abihty and military 
skill; and, however oppressive his government may have been to the. 
citizens of Corinth, he raised the city to a state of great prosperity and 
power, and made it respected alike by friends and foes. Under his sway 
Corinth was the wealthiest and the most powerful of all the commercial 
communities of Greece ; and at no other period in its history does it appear 
in so flourishing a condition. In his reign many important colonies were 

* Cypselus from cypseU {KV\jre\r)), a chest. 



B. C. 600.] THE DESPOTS OP CORINTH AND MEGARA. 81 

founded by Corinth on the coast of Acarnania and the surrounding islands 
and coasts, and his sovereignty extended over Corcyra, Ambracia, Leucas, 
and Anactorium, all of which were independent states in the next genera- 
tion. Corinth possessed harbors on either side of the Isthmus, and the 
customs and port-dues were so considerable, that Periander required no 
other source of revenue. 

Periander was also a warm patron of literature and art. He welcomed 
the poet Arion and the philosopher Anacharsis to his court, and was num- 
bered by some among the Seven Sages of Greece. 

The private life of Periander was marked by great misfortunes, which 
embittered his latter days. He is said to have killed his wife MeUssa iu 
a fit of anger ; whereupon his son Lycophron left Corinth and withdrew 
to Corcyra, The youth continued so incensed against his father that he 
refused to return to Corinth, when Periander in his old age begged him 
to come back and assume the government. Finding him inexorable, 
Periander, who was anxious to insure the continuance of his dynasty, then 
offered to go to Corcyra, if Lycophron would take his place at Corinth. 
To this his son assented; but the Corcyrseans, fearing the stem rule of the 
old man, put Lycophron to death. 

Periander reigned forty years (b. c. 625 - 585). He was succeeded by 
a relative, Psammetichus, son of Gorgias, who only reigned between three 
and four years, and is said to have been put down by the Lacedremonians. 

§ 7. During the reign of Periander at Corinth, Theagenes made himself 
despot in the neighboring city of Megara, probably about B. c. 630. He 
overthrew the ohgarchy by espousing the popular cause ; but he did not 
maintain his power till his death, and was di"iven from the government 
about B. c. 600. A struggle now ensued between the ohgarchy and the 
democracy, which was conducted with more than usual violence. The 
popular party obtained the upper hand, and abused their victory. The 
poor entered the houses of the rich, and forced them to provide costly 
banquets. They confiscated the property of the nobles, and drove most of 
them into exile. They not only cancelled their debts, but also forced the 
aristocratic creditors to refund all the interest which had been paid. But 
the expatriated nobles returned in arms and restored the ohgarchy. They 
were, however, again expelled, and it was not till after long struggles and 
convulsions that an ohgarchical government was permanently established 
at Megara. 

These Megarian revolutions are interesting as a specimen of the strug- 
gles between the oligarchical and democratical parties, which seem to have 
taken place in many other Grecian states about the same time. Some 
account of them is given by the contemporary poet Theognis, who himself 
belonged to the ohgarchical party at Megara. He was born and spent 
his life in the midst of these convulsions, and most of his poetry was com- 
posed at the time when the oligarchical party was oppressed and in exile. 
II 



82 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. IX. 

In his poems the nobles are the good, and the commons the lad, terms 
which at that period were regularly used in this political signification, and 
not in their later ethical meaning.* We find in his poems some interest- 
ing descriptions of the social changes which the popular revolution had 
efiected. It had rescued the country population from a condition of abject 
poverty and serfdom, and had given them a share in the government. 
" Our commonwealth preserves its former fame : 

Our common people are no more the same. 

They that in skins and hides were rudely dressed, 

Nor dreamt of law, nor sought to be redressed 

By rules of right, but in the days of old 

Lived on the land, like cattle in the fold, 

Are now the Brave and Good; and we, the rest, 

Are now the Mean and Bad,^ though once the best." 

An aristocracy of wealth had also begun to spring up in place of an aris- 
tocracy of bu'th, and intermarriages had taken place between the two 
parties in the state. 

" But in the daily matches that we make 
The price is everything ; for money's sake 
Men marry, — Women are in marriage given ; 
The Bad or Coward,'\ that in wealth has thriven, 
May match his offspring with the proudest race: 
Thus everything is mixed, noble and base." 

Theognis lost his property in the revolution, and had been driven into 
exile ; and the following Unes show the ferocious spirit which sometimes 
animated the Greeks in their party struggles. 

" Yet my full wish, to drink their very blood, 
Some power divine, that watches for my good. 
May yet accomplish. Soon may he fulfil 
My righteous hope, — my just and hearty will." % 

These Sicyonian, Corinthian, and Megarian despots were some of the 
most celebrated ; and their history will serve as samples of what took 
place in most of the Grecian states in the seventh and sixth centuries 
before the Christian era. 

* It should be recollected that the terms ol dyadoi, ia-dXoi, ^ekriarroi, &c. are fre 
quently used by the Greek writers to signify the nobles, and oi kukoi., SeiXot, &c. to signifj 
the commons. The Latin writers employ in like manner boni, optimates, and malt. 

t All these terms are used in their political signification. 

I The preceding extracts from Theognis are taken from the translation of the poet pab 
lished by Mr. Frere at Malta in 1842. 




Coin of Corinth 



Chap. X.] 



EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS. 



83 




Croesus on the Funeral Pile. (See p. 95.) — From an Ancient Vase. 



CHAPTER X. 

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ATHENIANS DOWN TO THE USURPATION OF 

PEISISTRATUS. 

I 1. Early Division of Attica into Twelve Independent States, said to have been united by 
Theseus. § 2. Abolition of Royalty. Life Archons. Decennial Archons. Annual 
Archons. ^ 3. Twofold Division of the Athenians. (1.) Eupatridte, Geomori, Demiurgi. 
(2.) Four Tribes: Geleontes, Hopletes, jEgicores, Argades. (j 4. Division of the Four 
Tribes into Trittyes and Naucraria, and into Phratriae and Gene or Gentes. § 5. The 
Government exclusively in the Hands of the Eupatridse. The Nine Archons and their 
Functions. The Senate of Areopagus. ^ 6. The Legislation of Draco. § 7. The Con- 
spiracy of Cylon. His Failure, and Massacre of his Partisans by Megacles, the Alcmse 
onid. Expulsion of the Alcraseonidse. ^ 8. Visit of Epiraenides to Athens. His Purifi 
cation of the City. ^ 9. Life of Solon. § 10. State of Attica at the time of Solon's Leg 
islation. § 11. Solon elected Archon, b. c. 594, with Legislative Powers. § 12. His 
Seisachtheia or Disburdening Ordinance. ^ 13. His Constitutional Changes. Divisiou 
of the People into Four Classes, according to their Property. § 14. Listitution of tb^ 
Senate of Four Hundred. Enlargement of the Powers of the Areopagus. The Atheniara 
Government continues an Oligarchy after the Time of Solon. § 15. The Special Laws of 
Solon. § 16. The Travels of Solon. § 17. Usurpation of Peisistratus. Return and Death 
•of Solon. 



§ 1. The liistory of Athens before the age of Solon is almost a blank. 
its legendary tales are few, its historical facts still fewer. Cecrops, the 



84 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap X. 

first ruler of Attica,* is said to have divided the country into twelve dis- 
tricts, which are represented as independent communities, each governed 
by a separate king. They were afterwards united into a single state, hav- 
ing Athens as its capital and the seat of government. At what time this 
important union was effected cannot be determined. It took place at a 
period long antecedent to all historical records, and is ascribed to Theseus, 
as the national hero of the Athenian people.f The poets and orators of a 
later age loved to represent him as the parent of the Athenian democracy. 
It would be a loss of time to point out the folly and absurdity of such a 
notion. Theseus belongs to legend, and not to history ; and in the age 
in which he is placed, a democratical form of government was a tiling 
quite unknown. 

§ 2. A few generations after Theseus, the Dorians are said to have in- 
vaded Attica. An oracle declared that they would be victorious if they 
spared the life of the Athenian king; whereupon Codi'us, who then 
reigned at Athens, resolved to sacrifice himself for the welfare of his 
country. Accordingly he went into the invaders' camp in disguise, pro- 
voked a quarrel ^vith one of the Dorian soldiers, and was killed by the 
latter. Upon learning the death of the Athenian king, the Dorians re- 
tired from Attica without striking a blow ; and the Athenians, from re- 
spect to the memory of Codrus, abolished the title of king, and substituted 
for it that of Archon J or Ruler. The office, however, was held for life, 
and was confined to the family of Codrus. His son, Medon, was the first 
archon, and he was followed in the dignity by eleven members of the fam- 
ily in succession. But soon after the accession of Alcmgeon, the thirteenth 
in descent from Medon, another change was introduced, and the duration 
of the archonship was hmited to ten years (b. c. 752). The dignity was 
still confined to the descendants of Medon ; but in the time of Hippomenes 
(b. c. 714) this restriction was removed, and the office was thrown open 
to all the nobles in the state. In b. c. 683, a still more important change 
took place. The archonship was now made annual, and its duties were 
distributed among nine persons, aU of whom bore the title, although one 
was called the archon pre-eminently, and gave his name to the year. The 
last of the decennial archons was Eryxias ; the first of the nine annual 
archons, Creon. 

Such is the legendary account of the change of government at Athens, 
from royalty to an oligarchy. It appears to have taken place peaceably 
and gradually, as in most other Greek states. The whole political power 
was vested in the nobles ; from them the nine annual archons were taken, 
and to them alone these magistrates were responsible. The people, or 
general body of freemen, had no share in the government. 

§ 3. The Athenian nobles were called Eupatridce. Their name is as- 

* See p. 14. t For details see p. 18. % "Ap^av. 



B. C. 683.] EARLY mSTORT OF ATTICA. Qo 

cribed to Theseus, who is said to have divided the Athenian people into 
three classes, called Eupatridce, Geomori or husbandmen, and Demiurgi * 
or artisans. The Eupatridee were the sole depositaries of political and 
rehgious power. In addition to the election of the archons, thej possessed 
the superintendence of aU rehgious matters, and were the authorized ex- 
pounders of all laws, sacred and profane. They corresponded to the 
Roman patricians ; while the two other classes, who were their subjects, 
answered to the Roman plebeians. 

There was another division of the Athenians still more ancient, and one 
which conthiued to a much later period. We have seen that the Dorians 
in most of their settlements were divided into three tribes. The lonians, 
in like manner, were usually distributed into four tribes-t Tins division 
existed in Attica from the earhest times, and lasted in full vigor down to 
the great revolution of Cleisthenes (b. c. 509). The four Attic tribes had 
different appellations at various periods, but were finally distinguished by 
the names of Geleontes (or Teleontes), Hopletes, ^gicores, and Argddes^X 
which they are said to have derived from the four sons of Ion. The 
etymology of these names would seem to suggest that the tribes were so 
called from the occupations of their members ; the Geleontes (Teleontes) 
being cultivators, the Hopletes the warrior-class, the uEgicores goat-herds, 
and the Argades artisans. Hence some modern writers have supposed 
that the Athenians were originally divided into castes, like the Egyptians 
and Indians. But the etymology of these names is not free from doubt 
and dispute ; and even if they were borrowed from certain occupations, 
they might soon have lost their original meaning, and become mere titles 
without any significance. 

§ 4. There were two divisions of the four Athenian tribes, one for polit- 
ical, and another for religious and social purposes. 

For political purposes each tribe was divided into three Trittyes, and 
each Trittys into four Naucrariae.§ There were thus twelve Trittyes and 
forty-eight Naucrarife. These appear to have been local divisions of the 
whole Athenian people, and to have been made chiefly for financial and 
mUitary objects. Each Naucrary consisted of the Naucrari, or house- 
holders,! who had to furnish the amount of taxes and soldiers imposed 
upon the district to which they belonged. 

The division of the tribes for pohtical and social purposes is more fre- 
quently mentioned. Each tribe is said to have contained three Phratriae, 
each Phratry thirty Gene or Gentes, and each Genos or Gens thirty 

* EuTrarptSai, Ffw/iopoi, Arifiiovpyol. 
•f $vXov, pi. $i/Xa. 

!j; FeXeoi/Tey or TeXeoin-ef, "OTrXijrfy, AlyiKopels, 'ApydSeiy. 
§ TpiTTvs, NavKpapia. 

II NavKpapos seems to be connected with vaia, dweU, and is only another form foJ 
vavKKapos or vavKkrjpos. 



86 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. X. 

heads of families.* Accordingly there would have been twelve Phratrioe, 
three hundred and sixty Gentes, and eighteen hundred heads of fanaihes. 
It is evident, however, that such symmetrical numbers could never have 
been preserved, even if they had ever been instituted ; and while it is cer- 
tain that the number of families must have increased in some gentes, and 
decreased in others, it may also be questioned whether the same number of 
gentes existed in each tribe. But whatever may be thought of the num- 
bers, the phratrige an'd gentes were important elements in the religious 
and social life of the Athenians. The families composing a gens were 
united by certain religious rites and social obligations. They were accus- 
tomed to meet together at fixed periods to offer sacrifices to a hero, whom 
they regarded as the common ancestor of all the famihes of the gens 
They had a common place of burial and common property ; and in case of 
a member dying intestate, his property devolved upon his gens. They 
were bound to assist each other in difficulties. There was also a connec- 
tion between the gentes of the same phratry, and between the phratriae 
of the same tribe, by means of certain religious rites ; and at the head 
of each tribe there was a magistrate called the Phylo-Basileus,^ or King 
of the Tribe, who offered sacrifices on behalf of the whole body. 

§ 5. The real history of Athens begins with the institution of annual 
arclions, in the year 683 B. c. This is the first date in Athenian history 
on which certain reliance can be placed. The duties of the government 
wei'e distributed among the nine archons, in the following mannex% The 
first, as has been already remarked, was called The Archon % by way of 
pre-eminence, and sometimes the Archon Eponymus, § because the year 
was distinguished by his name. He was the president of the body, and 
the representative of the dignity of the state. He was the protector of 
widows and orphans, and determined all disputes relating to the family. 
The second archon was called The Basileus or The King, because he 
represented the king in his capacity as high-priest of the nation.|| AH 
cases respecting religion and homicide were brought before him. The 
third archon bore the title of The Polemarch^ or Commander-in-chief, and 
was, down to the time of Cleisthenes, the commander of the troops. He 
had jurisdiction in all disputes between citizens and strangers. The re- 
maining six had the common title of Thesmothetoe** or Legislators. They 

* ^parpia, i. e. brolherhcod : the word is etymologically connected with /rater and 
brother. The word Tevos, or Gens, answers nearly in meaning to our clan. The members 
of a yevos were called yevvrrai or onoyaXaKres- 

•j" ^vKo^aaiXevs. 

X 'O ^'Apx<^v. § "Apx<«"' eiravvfios. 

II 'O ^aa-iXevs- In the same manner the title of Eex Sacrijiculus or Rex Sacrorum was 
retained at Rome after the abolition of royalty. 

^ 'O UoXifiapxos- 

** Qe<Tfi66fTai. The word Beafioi was the ancient term for laios, and was afterwarda 
supplanted by vofioi. The later expression for making laws is Beadai vofiovs. 



B. C. 624.] EARLY HISTORY OF ATTICA. 87 

had the decision of all disputes which did not specially belong to the other 
three. Their duties seem to have been almost exclusively judicial ; and 
for this reason they received their name, not that they made the laws, but 
because their particular sentences had the force of laws ia the absence of a 
written code. 

The Senate, or Council of Areopagus, was the only other political power 
in the state in these early times. It received its name from its place of 
meeting, which was a rocky eminence near the Acropolis, called the Hill 
of Ares (Mars' Hill).* Its institution is ascribed by some writers to Solon ; 
but it existed long before the time of that legislator, and may be regarded 
as the representative of the council of chiefs in the Heroic Ages. It was 
originally called simply The Senate or Council, and did not obtain the 
name of the senate of Areopagus till Solon instituted another senate, from 
which it was necessary to distinguish it. It was of course formed exclu- 
sively of Eupatrids, and all the arclions became members of it at the expira- 
tion of their year of office. 

§ 6. The government of the Eupatrids, hke most of the early oligarchies, 
seems to have been oppressive. In the absence of written laws, the 
archons possessed an arbitrary power, of which they probably availed 
themselves to the benefit of their friends and their order, and to the 
injury of the general body of citizens. The consequence was great dis- 
content, which at length became so serious, that Draco was appointed 
in 624 B. c. to draw up a written code of laws. He did not change the 
political constitution of Athens, and the most remarkable characteristic 
of his laws was their extreme severity. He affixed the penalty of death 
to all crimes alike ; — to petty thefts, for instance, as well as to sacrilege 
and murder. Hence they were said to have been written not in ink, but 
in blood ; and we are told that he justified this extreme harshness by say- 
ing, that small offences deserved death, and that he knew no severer pun- 
ishment for great ones. This severity, however, must be attributed rather 
to the spirit of the times, than to any peculiar harshness in Draco himself; 
for he probably did little more than reduce to writing the ordinances which 
had previously regulated his brother Eupatrids in their decision of cases. 
His laws would of course appear excessively severe to a later age, long 
accustomed to a milder system of jurisprudence ; but there is reason for 
believing that their severity has been somewhat exaggerated. In one 
instance, indeed, Draco softened the ancient rigor of the law. Before his 
time all homicides were tried by the senate of Areopagus, and, if found 
guilty, were condemned to suffer the full penalty of the law, — either 
death, or perpetual banishment with confiscation of property. - The senate 
had no power to take account of any extenuating or justifying circum- 
stances. Draco left to this ancient body the trial of all cases of wilful mur- 
der ; but he appointed fifty-one new judges, called Ephetce,^ who were to 

* 'O "Apeios nayos- t E(ierat. 



88 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. X 

try all cases of homicide in wMch accident or any other justification could 
be pleaded. His regulations with respect to homicide continued in use 
after his other ordinances had been repealed by Solon. 

§ 7. The legislation of Draco failed to calm the prcTailing discontent. 
The people gained nothing by the written code, except a more perfect 
knowledge of its severity ; and civU dissensions prevailed as extensively 
as before. The general dissatisfaction with the government was favorable 
to revolutionary projects ; and accordingly, twelve years after Draco's 
legislation (b. c. 612), one of the nobles conceived the design of depriving 
his brother Eupatrids of theu' power, and making himself despot of Athens. 
This noble was Cylon, one of the most distinguished members of the order. 
He had gained a victory at the Olympic games, and had married the 
daughter of Theagenes, of Megara, who had made himself despot of his 
native city. Encouraged by the success of his father-in-law, and excited 
by his own celebrity and position in the state, he consulted the Delphic 
oracle on the subject, and was advised to seize the Acropohs at "the 
greatest festival of Zeus." Cylon naturally supposed that the god referred 
to the Olympic games, in which he had gained so much distinction, forget- 
ting that the Diasia was the greatest festival of Zeus at Athens. Accord- 
ingly, during the celebration of the next Olympic games, he took possession 
of the Acropolis with a considerable force, composed partly of his own 
partisans, and partly of troops furnished by Theagenes. But he did not 
meet with any support from the great mass of the people, and he soon 
found himself closely blockaded by the forces which the govei'nment was 
able to summon to its assistance. Cylon and his brother made their 
escape : but the remainder of his associates, hard pressed by hunger, 
abandoned the defence of the walls, and took refuge at the altar of Athena 
(Minerva). Here they were found by the archon Megacles, one of the 
illustrious family of the Alcm^eonidje ; who, fearing lest their death should 
pollute the sanctuary of the goddess, promised that their lives should be 
spared on their quitting the place. But directly they had quitted the 
temple, the promise was broken, and they were put to death ; and some 
who had taken refuge at the altar of the Eumenides, or the Furies, were 
murdered even at that sacred spot. 

The conspiracy thus failed ; but its suppression was attended with a 
long train of melancholy consequences. The whole family of the Alcmae- 
onidee were believed to have become tainted by the daring act of sacrilege 
committed by Megacles ; and the- friends and partisans of the murdered 
conspirators were not slow in demanding vengeance upon the accursed 
race. Thus a new element of discord was introduced into the state. The 
power and influence of the Alcmgeonidae enabled them long to resist the 
attempts of their opponents to bring them to a public trial ; and it was not 
till many years after these events that Solon persuaded them to submit 
their case to the judgment of a special court composed of three hundred 



B. C. 638.] LIFE OF SOLON. 89 

Eupatridae. By tliis court tliey were adjudged guilty of sacrilege, and 
were expelled from Attica ; but their punishment was not considered to 
expiate their impiety, and we shall find in the later times of Athenian his- 
tory that this powerful family was still considered an accursed race, which 
by the sacrilegious act of its ancestor brought upon their native land the 
anger of the gods. The expulsion of the Alcmaeonidce appears to ha've 
taken place about the year 597 b. c. 

§ 8. The banishment of the guilty race did not, however, deliver the 
Athenians from their religious fears. They imagined that their state had 
incurred the anger of the gods : and the pestilential disease with which 
they were visited was regarded as an imerring sign of divine wrath. Upon 
the advice of the Delphic oracle, they invited the celebrated Cretan proph- 
et and sage, Epimenides, to visit Athens, and purify their city from pollu- 
tion and sacrilege. 

Epimenides was one of the most renowned prophets of the age. In his 
youth he was said to have been overtaken by a sleep, which lasted for 
fifty-seven years. During this miraculous trance he had been favored 
with frequent intercourse with the gods, and had learned the means of pro- 
pitiating them and gaining their favor. This venerable seer was received 
with the greatest reverence at Athens. By performing certain sacrifices 
and expiatory rites, he succeeded in staying the plague, and in purifying 
the city from its guilt The religious despondency of the Athenians now 
ceased, and the grateful people offered their benefactor a talent of gold ; 
but he refused the money, and contented himself with a branch from the 
sacred olive-tree which grew on the Acropolis. The visit of Epimenides 
to Athens occurred about the year 596 B. c. 

Epimenides had been assisted in his undertaking by the advice of So- 
lon, who now enjoyed a distinguished reputation at Athens, and to whom 
his fellow-citizens looked up as the only person in the state who could 
deliver them from their political and social dissensions, and secure them 
from such misfortunes for the future. 

§ 9. We have now come to an important period in Athenian and in 
Grecian history. The legislation of Solon laid the foundations of the 
greatness of Athens. Solon himself was one of the most remarkable 
men in the early history of Greece. He possessed a deep knowl- 
edge of human nature, and was animated in his public conduct by a 
lofty spirit of patriotism. It is, therefore, the more to be regi'etted that 
we are acquainted with only a few facts in his life. His birth may be 
placed about the year 638 b. c. He was the son of Execestides, who 
traced his descent from the heroic Codrus ; and his mother was first-cou- 
sin to the mother of Peisistratus. His father possessed only a moderate 
fortune, which he had still further diminished by prodigaUty ; and Solon 
in consequence was obliged to have recourse to trade. He visited many 
parts of Greece and Asia as a merchant, and formed acquaintance with 
12 



90 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. X 

many of the most eminent men of his time. At an early agt he distin- 
guished himself by his poetical abilities ; and so widely did his reputation 
extend, that he was reckoned one of the Seven Sages. 

The first occasion which induced Solon to take an active part in politi- 
cal affairs was the contest between Athens and Megara for the possession 
of Salamis. That island had revolted to Megara ; and the Athenians had 
so repeatedly failed in their attempts to recover it, that they forbade any 
citizen, under the penalty of death, to make any proposition for the re- 
newal of the enterprise. Indignant at such pusillanimous conduct, Solon 
caused a report to be spread through the city that he was mad, and then 
in a state of frenzied excitement he rushed into the market-place, and re- 
cited to a crowd of bystanders a poem which he had previously composed 
on the loss of Salamis. He upbraided the Athenians with their disgrace, 
and called upon them to reconquer " the lovely island." " Rather," he 
exclaimed, " would I be a denizen of the most contemptible community in 
Greece than a citizen of Athens, to be pointed at as one of those Attic 
dastards who had so basely relinquished their right to Salamis." His 
stratagem was completely successful. His friends seconded Ms proposal : 
and the people unanimously rescinded the law, and resolved once more 
to try the fortune of war. Solon was appointed to the command of the 
expedition, in which he was accompanied by his young kinsman, Peisis- 
tratus. In a single campaign (about B. c. 600) Solon drove the Megari- 
ans out of the island ; but a tedious war ensued, and at last both parties 
agreed to refer the matter in dispute to the arbitration of Sparta. Solon 
pleaded the cause of his countrymen, and is said on this occasion to have 
forged the hne in the IKad,* which represents Aias (Ajax) ranging his 
ship with those of the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians decided in- favor 
of the Athenians, in whose hands the island remained henceforward down 
to the latest times. 

Soon after the conquest of Salamis, Solon's reputation was further in- 
creased by espousing the cause of the Delphian temple against Cirrha. 
He is said to have moved the decree of the Amphictyons, by which war 
was declared against the guilty city (b. c. 595).t 

§ 10. The state of Attica at the time of Solon's legislation demands a 
more particular account than we have hitherto given. Its population was 
divided into three factions, who were now in a state of violent hostility 
against each other. These parties consisted of the Pedieis,X or wealthy 
Eupatrid inhabitants of the plains ; of the Diacrii,^ or poor inhabitants of 
the hilly districts in the north and east of Attica ; and of the ParaK,l or 
mercantile inhabitants of the coasts, who held an intermediate position be- 
tween the other two. 

*II. 558. t See p. 48. % HeStets or IleStatot. 

§ AiaKpioi. II HapaXot. 



B. C. 594.| LEG1SLA.TION OF SOLON. 91 

The cause of the dissensions between these parties is not particularly 
mentioned ; but the difhculties attending these disputes had become aggra- 
vated by the miserable condition of the poorer population of Attica. The 
latter were in a state of abject poverty. They had borrowed money from 
the wealthy at exorbitant rates of interest, upon the security of their prop- 
erty and their persons. If the principal and interest of the debt were 
net paid, the creditor had the power of seizing the person as well as the 
land of his debtor, and of using him as a slave. Many had thus been 
torn from then- homes and sold to barbarian masters ; while others were 
cultivating as slaves the lands of their wealthy creditors in Attica. The 
rapacity of the rich and the degradation of the poor are recorded by 
Solon in the existing fragments of his poetry ; and matters had now 
come to such a crisis, that the existing laws could no longer be en- 
forced, and the poor wei'e ready to rise in open insurrection against the 
rich. 

§ 11. In these alarming circumstances, the ruling oligarchy were obliged 
to have recourse to Solon. They were aware of the vigorous protest he 
had made against their injustice ; but they trusted that his connection 
with their party would help them over their present dilficulties ; and they 
therefoi-e cho.-e him Archon in b. c. 594, investing him under that title 
with unlimited powers to effect any changes he might consider beneficial 
to the .state. His appointment was hailed with satisfaction by the poor ; 
and all parties were willing to accept his mediation and reforms. 

Many of Solon's friends urged him to take advantage of his position and 
make himself despot of Athens. There is no doubt he would have suc- 
ceeded if he had made the attempt, but he had the wisdom and the virtue 
to resist the temptation, telling his friends that " despotism might be a fine 
country, but there was no way out of it." Dismissing, therefore, all 
thoughts of personal aggrandizement, he devoted all his energies to the 
difficult task he had undertaken. 

§ 12. He commenced his undertaking by relieving the poorer class of 
debtors from their existing distress. This he affected by a celebrated or- 
dinance called Seisacktheia, or a shaking off of burdens.* This measure 
cancelled all contracts by which the land or person of a debtor had been 
given as security : it thus relieved the land from all encumbrances and 
claims, and set at liberty all persons who had been reduced to slavery on 
account of their debts. Solon also provided means of restoring to their 
homes those citizens who had been sold into foreign countries. He forbade 
for the future all loans in which the person of the debtor was pledged as 
security. This extensive measure entirely released the poorer classes 
from their difficulties, but it must have left many of their creditors unable 
to discharge their obligations. To give the latter some reUef, he lowered 

* '2€i(ra)^0eia. Equivalent to a bankrupt law. — Ed. 



92 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. X 

the standard of the coinage, so that the debtor saved rather more than a 
fourth m every payment.* 

Some of his friends, having obtained a hint of his intention, borrowed 
large sums of money, with which tliey purchased estates ; and Solon him- 
self would have suffered in public estimation, if it had not been found that 
he was a losei by his own measure, having lent as much as five talents. 

§ 13. The success attending these measures was so great, that Solon 
was now called upon by his fellow-citizens to di-aw up a new constitution 
and a new code of laws. As a prehmiaary step he repealed all the laws 
of Draco, except those relating to murder. He then proceeded to make 
a new classification of the citizens, according to the amount of their prop- 
erty, thus changing the government from an Oligarchy to a Timocracy.t 

The title of the citizens to the honors and offices of the state was hence- 
forward regulated by their wealth, and not by their birth. This was the 
distmguisliing feature of Solon's constitution, and produced eventually most 
important consequences ; though the change vras probably not great at 
first, since there were then few wealthy persons in Attica, except the Eu- 
patrids. Solon then distributed all the citizens into four classes, accord- 
ing to their property, which he caused to be assessed. The fii"st class 
consisted of those whose annual income was equal to five hundred me- 
dimni of corn and upwards, and were called Pentacosiomedimni.X The 
second class consisted of those whose incomes ranged between three hun- 
dred and five hundred medimni, and were called Knights,^ from their 
being able to furnish a war-horse. The third class consisted of those who 
received between two hundred and three hundred medimni, and were 
called Zeugit(jB,\ from theh being able to keep a yoke of oxen for the 
plough. The fourth class, called Thetes,^ included all whose property fell 
short of two hundred medimni. The members of the first three classes 
had to pay an income-tax according to the amount of their property ; but 
the fourth class were exempt from direct taxation altogether. The first 
class were alone eligible to the archonship and the higher offices of the 
state. The second and third classes filled inferior posts, and were hable 
to miUtary service, the former as horsemen, and the latter as heavy-armed 
soldiers on foot. The fourth class were excluded from all public offices, 
and served in the army only as light-armed troops. Solon, however, ad- 

* Solon is said to have made the mina contain one hundred drachmas instead of seventy- 
three ; that is, seventy-three old drachmas contained the same quantity of silver as one 
hundred of the new standard. 

I TifioKparia, from rififj, assessment, and Kparea), rule. (A government of prop 
erty. — Ed.) 

J Yl€VTaKO(nojxebiiivoi. The medimnus contained nearly twelve imperial gallons, of 
One bushel and a half: it was reckoned equal to a drachma. 

§ 'Itttt^s or 'iTTTreiff. 

I Zeuytrai, from fevyos, a yoke of beasts. ^ G^res. 



B. C. 594.] LEGISLATION OF SOLON. 93 

mitted them to a shai-e in tlie political power by allowing them to vote in 
the public assembly,* where they must have constituted by far the largest 
number. He gave the assembly the right of electing the archons and the 
other officers of the state ; and he also made the archons accountable to 
the assembly at the expiration of their year of office. Solon thus greatly 
enlarged the functions of the public assembly, which, under the govern- 
ment of the Eupatrids, probably possessed little more power than the 
agora, described in the poems of Homer. 

§ 14. This extension of the duties of the public assembly led to the in- 
stitution of a new body. Solon created the Senate, or Couhcil of Four 
Hundred, with the special object of preparing all matters for the discus- 
sion of the public assembly, of presiding at its meetings, and of carrying 
its resolutions into effect. No subject could be introduced before the peo- 
ple, except by a previous resolution of the Senate.f The members of the 
Senate were elected by the public assembly, one hundred from each of 
the four ancient tribes, which were left untouched by Solon. They held 
their office for a year, and were accountable at its expiration to the public 
assembly for the manner in which they had discharged their duties. 

Solon, however, did not deprive the ancient Senate of the Areopagus 
of any of its functions.^ On the contrary, he enlarged its powers, and 
intrusted it with the general supervision of the institutions and laws of 
the state, and imposed upon it the duty of inspecting the hves and occu- 
pations of the citizens. 

These are the only political institutions which can be safely ascribed to 
Solon. At a later period it became the fashion among the Athenians to 
regard Solon as the author of all their democratical institutions, just as 
some of the orators referred them even to Theseus. Thus the creation of 
jury-courts and of the periodical revision of the laws by the Nomothetae 
belongs to a later age, although frequently attributed to Solon. This 
legislator only laid the foundation of the Athenian democracy, by giving 
the poorer classes a vote in the popular assembly, and by enlarging 
the power of the latter ; but he left the government exclusively in the 
hands of the wealthy. For many years after his time, the government 
continued to be an oligarchy, but was exercised with more moderation and 
justice than formerly. The estabhshment of the Athenian democracy was 
the work of Cleisthenes, and not of Solon. 

§ 15. The laws of Solon were inscribed on wooden rollers and triangu- 
lar tablets,§ and were preserved first in the Acropolis, and afterwards in 
the Prytaneum or Town-hall. They were very numerous, and contained 
regulations on almost all subjects connected with the pubhc and private 

* Called Helicea ('HXiata) in the time of Solon, but subsequently Ecclesia (eK/cXij(rta) 

t Called Prdbouleuma (irpo^ovXevfia.) 

I See p. 87. § Called "Amoves and Kup/3ety. 



94 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. X 

life of the citizens. But they do not seem to have been arranged in any 
systematic manner ; and such small fragments have come down to us, that 
it is impossible to give any general view of them. 

The most important of all these laws were those relating to debtor and 
creditor, of which we have already spoken. Several of Solon's enactments 
had for their object the encouragement of trade and manufactures. He 
invited foreigners to settle in Athens by the promise of protection and 
valuable privileges. The Council of the Areopagus was, as we have seen, 
intrusted by him with the duty of examining into every man's mode of life, 
and of punishing the idle and profligate. To discourage idleness, a son was 
not obliged to support his father in old age, if the latter had neglected to 
teach him some trade or occupation. 

Solon punished theft by compelling the guilty party to restore double the 
value of the property stolen. He forbade speaking evil either of the dead 
or of the living. He either establislied or regulated the public dinners in 
the Prytaneum, of which the archons and a few others partook. 

The rewards which he bestowed upon "the victors in the Olympic and 
Isthmian games were very large for that age : to the former he gave five 
hundred drachmas, and to the latter one hundred. 

One of the most singular of Solon's regulations was that which declared 
a man dishonored and disfranchised who, in a civil sedition, stood aloof and 
took part with neither side. The object of this celebrated law was to 
create a public spirit in the citizens, and a hvely interest in the affairs of 
the state. The ancient governments, unlike those of modern times, could 
not summon to their assistance any regular police or military force ; and 
miless individual citizens came forward in civil commotions, any ambitious 
man, supported by a powerful party, might easily make himself master of 
the state. 

§ 16. Solon is said to have been aware that he had left many imperfec- 
tions in his laws. He described them, not as the best laws which he could 
devise, but as the best which the Athenians could receive. He bound the 
government and people of Athens, by a solemn oath, to observe his institu- 
tions for at least ten years. But as soon as they came into operation he 
was constantly besieged by a number of applicants, who came to ask his 
advice respecting the meaning of his enactments, or to suggest improve- 
ments and alterations in them. Seeing that, if he remained in Athens, he 
should be obliged to introduce changes into his code, he resolved to leave 
his native city for the period of ten years, during which the Athenians 
were bound to maintain his laws inviolate. He first visited Egypt, and 
then proceeded to Cyprus, where he was received with great distinction by 
Philocyprus, king of the small town of -^pla. He persuaded this prince 
to remove his city from the old site, and found a new one on the plain, 
which Philocyprus called Soli, in honor of his illustrious visitor. 

Solon is also related to have remained some time at Sardis, the capita 



B. C. 560.] USURPATION OF PEISISTRATUS. 95 

of Lydia. His interview with Croesus, the Lydian king, is one of the 
most celebrated events in his hfe. The Lydian monarchy was then at the 
height of its prosperity and glory. Croesus, after exhibiting to the Grecian 
sage all his treasures, asked him who was the happiest man he had ever 
known, nothing doubting of the reply. But Solon, without flattering his 
royal guest, named two obscure Greeks ; aiid when the king expressed his 
surprise and mortification that his visitor took no account of his great glory 
and wealth, Solon replied, that he esteemed no man happy tiU he knew 
how he ended his life, since the highest prosperity was frequently followed 
by the darkest adversity. Croesus at the time treated the admonition of the 
sage with contempt ; but when the Lydian monarchy was afterwards over- 
thrown by Cyrus, and Croesus was condemned by his savage conqueror to be 
burnt to death, the warnings of the Greek philosopher came to his mind, 
and he called in a loud voice upon the name of Solon. Cyrus inquired the 
cause of this strange invocation, and, upon learning it, was struck with the 
vicissitudes of fortune, set the Lydian monarch free, and made him his 
confidential friend. 

It is impossible not to regret that the stern laws of chronology compel 
us to reject this beautiful tale. Croesus did not ascend the throne tiU 
B. c. 560, and Solon had returned to Athens before that date. The story 
has been evidently invented to convey an important moral lesson, and to 
draw a striking contrast between Grecian repubhcan simplicity and Orien- 
tal splendor and pomp. 

§ 17. During the absence of Solon, the old dissensions between the 
Plain, the Shore, and the Mountain had broken out afresh with more vio- 
lence than ever. The first was headed by Lycurgus, the second by 
Megacles, the Alcmaeonid and the grandson of the archon who had sup- 
pressed the conspiracy of Cylon, and the thii-d by Peisistratus, the cousin 
of Solon. Of these leaders, Peisistratus was the ablest and the most 
dangerous. He had gained renown in war ; he possessed remarkable 
fluency of speech ; and he had espoused the cause of the Mountain, which 
was the poorest of the three classes, in order to gain popularity with the 
great mass of the people. Of these advantages he resolved to avail him- 
self in order to become master of Athens. 

Solon relurned to Athens about b. c. 562, when these dissensions were 
rapidly approaching a crisis. He soon detected the ambitious designs of 
his kinsman, and attempted to dissuade him from them. Finding his 
remonstrances fruitless, he next denounced his projects in verses addressed 
to the people. Few, however, gave any heed to his warnings ; and Peisis- 
tratus, at length finding his schemes ripe for action, had recourse to a 
memorable stratagem to secure his object. One day he appeared in the 
market-place in a chariot, his mules and his own person bleeding with 
wounds inflicted with his own hands. These he exhibited to the people, 
telling them that he had been nearly murdered in consequence of defending 



96 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChaP. X, 

their rights. The popular indignation was excited; an assembly was 
forthwith called, and one of his friends proposed that a guard of fifty club- 
men should be granted him for his future security. It was in vain that 
Solon used aU his authority to oppose so dangerous a request ; his resist- 
ance was overborne, and the guard was voted. 

Peisistratus thus gained the first and most important step. He gradually 
increased the number of his guard, and soon found himself strong enough 
to throw off the mask and seize the Acropolis, b. c. 560. Megacles and 
the Alcmasonidas left the city. Solon alone had the courage to oppose the 
usurpation, and upbraided the people with their cowardice and their treach- 
ery. " You might," said he, " with ease have crushed the tyrant in the bud ; 
but nothing now remains but to pluck him up by the roots." No one, how- 
ever, responded to his appeal. He refused to fly ; and when his friends 
asked him on what he relied for protection, " On my old age," was his 
reply. It is creditable to Peisistratus that he left his aged relative unmo- 
lested, and even asked his advice in the administration of the government. 

Solon did not long survive the overthrow of the constitution. He died a 
year or two afterwards, at the advanced age of eighty. His ashes are said 
to have been scattered, by his own direction, round the island of Salamis, 
which he had won for the Athenian people.* 

* The character of Solon is one of the most remarkable in history. Perhaps no indi- 
vidual has exercised a wider influence on human affairs. He laid the foundation of Athe 
nian legislation, and through that of the Roman Law, which governs the administration oi 
justice, down to the present day, throughout a great part of the civilized world. Besides 
being a legislator, he was a poet of no ordinary powers. In his youth he sung of Love and 
Wine; but the serious business which the distracted condition of his country laid upon him 
led him to employ tiie vehicle of poetic measures for mom] and political ends. In his Sala- 
minian Ode, of which only two or three lines are preserved, he was thought to have equalled 
Tyrtsetis. In the fragments of the other poems which have come down to us, the lines are 
nervous and pointed, and not without admirable poetical images. The following literal 
version of an elegiac fragment, from a poem seemingly written to warn the people against 
the arts of aspiring demagogues, may give the reader some idea of his manner of composi- 
tion and style of thought. 

Out of the clouds the snow-flakes are poured, and fury of hail-storm ; 

After the lightning's flash, follows the thunderous bolt. 
Tossed by the winds is the sea, though now so calmly reposing, 

Hushed in a motionless rest, emblem of justice and peace. 
So is the State by its gi-eat men ruined, and under the tyrant 

Sinks the people unwise, yielding to slavery's thrall ; 
Nor is it easy to humble the ruler too highly exalted, 
After the hour is passed : now is the time to foresee. 
His morality was pure and lofty, and the expression of religious feeling, in his writings, is 
marked by humble submission to the divine will. The only fault to be found with him ia, 
that, through his long life of fourscore, he remained unmarried. — Ed. 



B: C. 560.] 



USURPATION OF PEISISTRATUS. 



97 




Buins of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens.* 
CHAPTER XI. 

HISTORY OF ATHENS FROM THE USURPATION OF PEISISTRATUS TO THB 
ESTABLISHMENT OP THE DEMOCRACY BY CLEISTHENES. 



1. Despotism of Peisistratus. His First Expulsion and Eestoration. § 2. His Second Ex. 
pulsion and Restoration. § 3. Government of Peisistratus after his Final Eestoration to 
his Death, B. c. 527. §4. Government of Hippias and Hipparchus. Conspiracy of Har 
modius and Aristogeiton, and Assassination of Hipparchus, b. c. 514. § 5. Sole Govern- 
ment of Hippias. His Expulsion by the Alcmseonidse and the Lacedasmonians, b. c. 510. 
§ 6. Honors paid to Harmodius and Aristogeiton. § 7. Party Struggles at Athens be- 
tvi'een Cleisthenes and Isagoras. Establishment of the Athenian Democracy. § 8. Re- 
forms of Cleisthenes. Institution of Ten new Tribes and of the Demes. § 9. Increase of 
the Number of the Senate to Five Hundred. § 10. Enlargement of the Functions and 
Authority of the Senate and the Ecclesia. § 11. Introduction of the Judicial Functions 
of the People. Institution of the Ten Strategi or Generals. §12. Ostracism. §13. First 
Attempt of the Lacedeemonians to overthrow the Athenian Democracy. Invasion ol 
Attica by Cleomenes, followed by his Expulsion with that of Isagoras. § 14. Second 
Attempt of the Lacedemonians to overthrow the Athenian Democracy. The Lacedee- 
monians, Thebans, and Ghalcidians attack Attica. The Lacedaemonians deserted by 
their Allies, and compelled to retire. Victories of the Athenians over the Thebans and 
Chalcidians, followed by the Planting of Four Thousand Athenian Colonists on the Lands 
of the Chalcidians. § 15. Third Attempt of the Lacedemonians to overthrow the 



* One of the columns — that at the further extremity in this view — was blown down by 
I hurricane a few years ago. — Ed. 
13 



98 HISTOKT or GKEECE. [Chap. XI. 

Athenian Democracy, again frustrated by the Eefusal of the Allies to take a Part in the 
Enterprise. § 16. Growth of Athenian Patriotism, a Consequence of the Reforms of 
Cleisthenes. 

§ 1. Peisistbatus became despot of Athens, as already stated, in 
the year 560 b. c. He did not, however, retain his power long. The 
two leaders of the other factions, Megacles of the Shore, and Lycurgus of 
the Plain, now combined, and Peisistratus was driven into exile. But the 
two rivals afterwards quarrelled, and Megacles invited Peisistratus to re- 
turn to Athens, offering him his daugher in marriage, and promising to 
assist him in regaining the sovereignty. These conditions being accepted, 
the following stratagem was devised for carrying the plan into effect. A 
tall stately woman, named Phya, was clothed in the armor and costume 
of Athena (Minerva), and placed m a chariot with Peisistratus at her 
side. In this guise the exiled despot approached the city, preceded by 
heralds, who announced that the goddess was bringing back Peisistratus 
to her own acropolis. The people believed the announcement, worship- 
ped the woman as their tutelary goddess, and quietly submitted to the 
sway of their former ruler. 

§ 2. Peisistratus married the daughter of Megacles according to the 
compact ; but as he had already grown-up children by a former maniage, 
and did not choose to connect his blood with a family which was considered 
accursed on account of Cylon's sacrilege, he did not treat her as his wife. 
Incense'd at this affront, Megacles again made common cause with Lycur- 
gus, and Peisistratus was compelled a second time to quit Athens. He 
retired to Eretria in Euboea, where he remained no fewer than ten years. 
He did not, however, spend his time in inactivity. He possessed consider- 
able influence in various parts of Greece, and many cities furnished him 
with large sums of money. He was thus able to procure mercenaries from 
Argos ; and Lygdamis, a powerful citizen of Naxos, came himself both 
with money and with troops. With these Peisistratus sailed from Eretria, 
and landed at Marathon. Here he was speedily joined by his friends and 
partisans, who flocked to his camp in large numbers. His antagonists 
allowed him to remain undisturbed at Marathon ; and it was not till he 
began his march towards the city that they hastily collected their forces 
and went out to meet him. But their conduct was extremely negligent or 
corrupt ; for Peisistratus fell suddenly upon their forces at noon, when the 
men were unprepared for battle, and put them to flight almost without re- 
sistance. Instead of following up his victory by slaughtering the fugitives, 
he proclaimed a general pardon on condition of their returning quietly to 
their homes. His orders were generally obeyed ; and the leaders of the 
opposite factions, finding themselves abandoned by their partisans, quitted 
the country. In this manner Peisistratus became undisputed master of 
Athens for the third time. 

§ 3. Peisistratus now adopted vigorous measures to secure his power 



B. C. 527.] USURPATION OF PEISISTRATUS. 99 

and render it permanent. He took into his pay a body of Thracian mer- 
cenaries, and seized as hostages the children of those citizens whom he 
suspected, placing them in Naxos under the care of Lygdamis. But as 
soon as he was firmly estabhshed in the government, his administration 
was marked by mildness and equity. An income-tax of five per cent, was 
all that he levied from the people. He maintained the institutions of So- 
lon, taking care, however, that the highest offices should always be held 
by some members of his own family. He not only enforced strict obedi- 
ence to the laws, but himself set the example of submitting to them. Being 
accused of murder, he disdained to take advantage of his authority, and 
went in person to plead his cause before the Areopagus, where his accuser 
did not venture to appear. He courted popularity by largesses to the citi 
zens, and by throwing open his gardens to the poor. He adorned Athens 
with many public buildings, thus giving employment to the poorer citizens, 
and at the same time gratifying his own taste. He commenced on a stu- 
pendous scale a temple to the Olympian Zeus, which remained unfinished 
for centuries, and was at length completed by the Emperor Hadrian. He 
covered with a building the fountain Callirrhoe, which supphed the greater 
part of Athens with water, and conducted the water through nine pipes, 
whence the fountain was called Enneacriinus.* Moreover, Peisistratus 
was a patron of Kterature, as well as of the arts. He is said to have been 
the first person in Greece who collected a hbrary, which he threw open to 
the public ; and to him posterity is indebted for the collection of the Ho- 
meric poems-t On the whole, it cannot be denied that he made a wise and 
noble use of his power ; and it was for this reason that Juhus C^sar was 
called the Peisistratus of Rome. 

§ 4. Peisistratus died at an advanced age in 527 b. c, thirty-three 
years after his first usurpation. He transmitted the sovereign power to 
his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, who conducted the government on the 
same principles as their father. Hipparchus inherited his father's literary 
tastes. He invited several distinguished poets, such as Anacreon and 
Simonides, to his court, and he set up along the highways statues of 
Hennes (Mercury), with moral sentences written upon them. Thucydi- 
des states that the sons of Peisistratus cultivated virtue and wisdom ; the 
people appear to have been contented with their rule ; and it was only an 
accidental circumstance which led to their overthrow and to a change in 
the government. 

Their fall was occasioned by the memorable conspiracy of Harmodius 
and Aristogeiton. These citizens belonged to an ancient family of Athens, 
and were attached to each other by the most intimate friendship. Har- 
modius having given ofience to Hippias, the despot revenged himself by 
putting a public affront upon his sister. This indignity excited the resent* 

* 'EvveaKpovvos, from ivvia, nine, and Kpovvos, a pipe. f See p. 42. 



100 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. 

ment of the two friends, and they now resolved to slay the despots, or per- 
ish in the attempt. They communicated the plot to a few associates, and 
determined to carry it into execution on the festival of the Gi'eat Pan- 
athenaea, when all the citizens were required to attend in arms, and to 
march in procession from the Cerameicus, a suburb of the city, to the tem- 
ple of Athena (Minerva) on the Acropolis. Wlieh the appointed time 
arrived, the conspirators appeared like the rest of the citizens, but carry- 
ing concealed daggers besides. Harmodius and Aristogeiton had planned 
to kill Hippias first, as he was arranging the order of the procession in the 
Cerameicus ; but upon approaching the spot where he was standing, they 
were thunderstruck at beholding one of the conspirators in close conversa- 
tion with the despot. Believing that they were betrayed, and resolving 
before they died to wreak their vengeance upon Hipparchus, they rushed 
back into the city with their daggers hid in the myrtle-boughs which they 
were to have carried in the procession. They found him near the chapel 
called Leocorium, and killed him on the spot. Harmodius was immediately 
cut down by the guards. Aristogeiton escaped for the time, but was after- 
wards taken, and died under the tortures to winch he was subjected in or- 
der to compel him to disclose his accomplices. The news of his brother's 
death reached Hippias before it became generally known. With extraor- 
dinary presence of mind, he called upon the citizens to drop their arms, 
and meet him in an adjoining ground. They obeyed Avithout suspicion. 
He then apprehended those on whose persons daggers were discovered, 
and aE besides whom he had any reason to suspect. 

§ 5. Hipparchus was assassinated in B. c. 514, the fourteenth year after 
the death of Peisistratus. From this time the character of the government 
became entirely changed. His brother's murder converted Hippias into 
a cruel and suspicious tyrant. He put to death numbers of the citizens, 
and raised large sums of money by extraordinary taxes. Feeling him- 
self unsafe at home, he began to look abroad for some place of retreat, in 
case he should be expelled from Athens. With this view, he gave his 
daughter in marriage to .^Eantides, son of Hippoclus, despot of Lampsacus, 
because the latter was in great favor with Darius, king of Persia. 

Meantime the growing unpopularity of Hippias raised the hopes of the 
powerful family of the Alcmseonidee, who had lived in exile ever since the 
third and final restoration of Peisistratus to Athens. Believing the favor- 
able moment to be come, they even ventured to invade Attica, and estab- 
lished themselves in a fortified town upon the frontier. They were, how- 
ever, defeated by Hippias Avith loss, and compelled to quit the country. 
Unable to effect their restoration by force, they now had recourse to a 
manoeuvre which proved successful. 

The Alcmfeonida3 had taken the contract for rebuilding the temple at 
Delphi, which had been accidentally destroyed by fire many years pre- 
viously. They not only executed the work in the best possible manner, 



B. C. 510.] EXPULSION OF HIPPIAS. 101 

but even exceeded what had been required of them, employing Parian 
marble for the front of the temple, instead of the coarse stone specified in 
the contract. This hberahty gained for them the favor of the Delphians ; 
and Cleisthenes, the son of Megacles, who was now the head of the family, 
secured the oracle still further by pecuniary presents to the Pythia, or 
priestess. Henceforth, whenever the Spartans came to consult the oracle, 
the answer of the priestess was always the same, — "Athens must be 
liberated." This order was so often repeated, that the Spartans at last 
resolved to obey, although they had hitherto maintained a friendly connec- 
tion with the family of Peisistratus. Their first attempt failed ; the force 
which they sent into Attica was defeated by Hippias, and its leader slain. 
A second efibrt succeeded. Cleomenes, king of Sparta, defeated the Thes- 
salian allies of Hippias ; and the latter, unable to meet his enemies in the 
field, took refuge in the AcropoUs. Here he might have maintamed him- 
self in safety, had not his children been made prisoners as they were 
secretly carried out of the country. To procure their restoration, he con- 
sented to quit Attica in the space of five days. He sailed to Asia, and 
took up his residence at Sigeum in the Troad, which his father had wrested 
from the Mytilenseans in war. 

§ 6. Hippias was expelled in b. c. 510, four years after the assassination 
of Hipparchus. These four years had been a time of suffering and op- 
pression for the Athenians, and had effaced from their minds all recollection 
of the former mild rule of Peisistratus and his sons. Hence the expul- 
sion of the family was hailed with delight, and their names were handed 
down to posterity with execration and hatred. For the same reason the 
memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton was cherished with the fondest 
reverence ; and the Athenians of subsequent generations, overlooking the 
four years which elapsed from their death to the overtlu'ow of the des- 
potism, represented them as the liberators of their country and the first 
martyrs for its hberty. Their statues were erected in the market-place 
soon after the expulsion of Hippias ; their descendants enjoyed immunity 
from all taxes and public burdens ; and their deed of vengeance formed 
the favorite subject of drinking-songs. Of these the most famous and 
popular lias come down to us, and may be thus translated : — 

'* I '11 wreathe my sword in myrtl i-bough, 
The sword that laid the tjTant low, 
When patriots, burning to be free, 
To Athens gave equality. 

" Harmodius, hail ! though reft of breath, 
Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death ; 
The heroes' happy isles shall be 
The bright abode allotted thee. 

" I 'U wreathe my sword in myrtle-bough, 
The sword that laid Hipparchus low, 
When at Athena's adverse fane 
He knelt, and never rose again. 



102 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XI 

" While Freedom's name is understood, 
You shall delight the wise and good; 
Yon dared to set your country free, 
And gave her laws equality." * 

§ 7. The Lacedgemonians quitted Athens soon after Hippias had sailed 
away, leaving the Athenians to settle their own affairs. The Solonian con- 
stitution, which had continued to exist nominally under the administration 
of the family of Peisistratus, was now revived in its full force and vigor. 
Cleisthenes, to whom Athens was mainly indebted for its liberation from 
the despotism, aspired to be the political leader of the state, but was op- 
posed by Isagoras, who was supported by the great body of the nobles. 
By the Solonian constitution, the whole political power was vested in the 
hands of the latter ; and Cleisthenes soon found that it was hopeless to 
contend against his i-ival under the existing order of things. For this 
reason he resolved to introduce an important change in the constitution, 
and to give to the people an equal share in the government. This is the 
account of Herodotus, who says that " he took the people into partnership, 
who had been before excluded from everything." It is probable, however, 
that these reforms were not suggested simply by a love of selfish aggran- 
dizement ; but that he had seen the necessity of placing the constitution on 
a more popular basis, and of giving a larger number of citizens a personal 
interest in the welfare and preservation of the state. However this may 
be, the reforms of Cleisthenes gave birth to the Athenian democracy, 
which can hardly be said to have existed before this time. 

§ 8. The first and most important reform of Cleisthenes, and that on 
which all the rest depended, was a re-distribution of the whole population 
of Attica into ten new tribes. Up to this time the Athenian citizenship 
had been confined to the members of the four Ionic tribes, into which no 
one could gain admission except through means of the close corporations 
called gene and phratrise.f But there was a large body of residents i^ 
Attica who did not belong to these corporations, and who consequently had 
no share in the political franchise. Cleisthenes accordingly abolished these 
four tribes, and established ten new ones in their stead, in which he en- 
rolled all the free inhabitants of Attica, including both resident aliens and 
even emancipated slaves. These ten tribes were purely local, and were 
divided into a certain number of cantons or townships, called demes.j At 
a later time we find one hundred and seventy-four of these demes ; but it 
is not known whether this was the original number instituted by Cleis- 
thenes. 

There is one point connected with the arrangement of the demes which 
deserves mention, since it indicates singular foresight and sagacity on the 
part of Cleisthenes. The demes which he assigned to each tribe were never 

* Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta, p. 445. 

t See p. 85. t SW"'- 



B. C. 510.] REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES. 103 

all of them contiguous to each other, but were scattered over different parts 
of Attica. The object of this aiTangement was evidently to prevent any 
tribe from acquiring a local interest independent of the entire community, 
and to remove the temptation of forming itself into a political faction from 
the proximity of its members to each other. This was the more necessary 
when we recollect that the parties of the Plain, the Shore, and the Moun- 
tain had all arisen from local feuds. 

Every Athenian citizen was obhged to be enrolled in a deme, and in all 
public documents was designated by the name of the one to which he 
belonged. Each deme, like a parish in England, administered its own 
affairs. It had its public meetings, it levied taxes, and was under the 
superintendence of an officer called Demarchus.* 

§ 9. The establishment of the ten new tribes led to a change in the 
number of the Senate. It had previously consisted of four hundred mem- 
bers, taken in equal proportions from each of the four old tribes. It was 
now enlarged to five hundred, fifty being selected from each of the ten new 
tribes. At the same time its duties and functions were greatly increased. 
By the constitution of Solon its principal business was to prepare matters 
for discussion in the Ecclesia ; but Cleisthenes gave it a great share in the 
administration of the state. Its sittings became constant, and the year was 
divided into ten portions, called Prytanys,^ corresponding to a similar 
division in the Senate. The fifty senators of each tribe took by turns the 
duty of presiding in the Senate and in the Ecclesia during one Prytany, 
and received during that time the title of Prytaneis-X The ordinary Attic 
year consisted of twelve lunar months, or three hundred and sixty-four 
days, so that six of the Prytanys lasted thirty-five days, and four of them 
thirty-six days. But for the more convenient despatch of business, every 
fifty members were divided into five bodies of ten each, who presided for 
seven days, and were hence called Pro'edri. § Moreover, out of these 
proedri a chairman, called Epistates, |i was chosen by lot every day to pre- 
side both in the Senate and in the Ecclesia, when necessary, and to him 
were intrusted during his day of office the keys of the acropolis and the 
treasury, and the public seal. 

§ 10. The Ecclesia, or formal assembly of the citizens, was accustomed 
at a later period to meet regularly four times in every Prytany. It is not 
stated that this number was fixed by Cleisthenes, and it is more probable 
that he did not institute such frequent meetings ; but it cannot be doubted 
that it was a part of his system to summon the Ecclesia at certain fixed 
periods. By the constitution of Solon the government of the state seems 
to have been chiefly vested in the archons ; and it was one of the principal 
reforms of Cleisthenes to transfer the political power from their hands to 

* Ar]ixap)(^os. f UpvTavfiai.. J UpvTavels. 

§ Upoedpoi. II 'Enia-TaTrjs- 



104 HISTORY OF GBEECE. [ChAP. XL 

the Senate and the Ecclesia. He accustomed the people to the discussion 
and management of their own affairs, and thus prepared them for the still 
more democratical reforms of Aristeides and Pericles. At a later time we 
find that all citizens were eligible to the office of archon, and that these 
magistrates were chosen by lot, and not elected by the body of citizens. 
They were deprived, moreover, of most of their judicial duties by the ex- 
tension of the powers of the popular courts of justice. 

These reforms, however, were not introduced by Cleisthenes. He con- 
tinued to exclude the fourth of those classes into which Solon had divided 
the citizens from the post of archon and from all other offices of state ; he 
made no change in the manner of appointing the archons, and left them in 
the exercise of important judicial duties. Hence the constitution of Cleis- 
thenes, notwithstanding the increase of power which it gave to the people, 
came to be regarded as aristocratical in the times of Pericles and Demos- 
thenes. 

§ 11. Of the other reforms of Cleisthenes we are imperfectly informed. 
He increased the judicial as well as the pohtipal power of the people. It 
is in fact doubtful whether Solon gave the people any judicial functions at 
aU ; and it was probably Cleisthenes who enacted that all pubHc crimes 
should be tried by the whole body of citizens above thirty years of age, 
specially convoked and sworn for the purpose. The assembly thus con- 
vened was called Helicea, and its members Heliasts* With the increase 
of the judicial functions of the people, it became necessary to divide the 
Hehfea into ten distinct courts ; and this change was probably mtroduced 
soon after the time of Cleisthenes. 

The new constitution of the tribes introduced a change in the mihtary 
arrangements of the state. The citizens, who were required to serve, were 
now marshalled according to tribes, each of which was subject to a Strate- 
gus,'\ or general of its own. These ten generals were elected annually by- 
the whole body of citizens, and became at a later time the most important 
officers in the state, since they possessed the direction not only of naval and 
military affairs, but also of the relations of the city with foreign states. 
Down to the time of Cleisthenes, the command of the mihtary force had 
been vested exclusively in the third archon, or Polemarch ; and even after 
the institution of the Strategi by Cleisthenes, the Polemarch still continued 
to possess a joint right of command along with them, as will be seen when 
we come to relate the battle of Marathon. 

§ 12. There was another remarkable institution expressly ascribed to 
Cleisthenes, — the Ostracism; the real object of which has been explained 
for the first time by Mr. Grote. By the Ostracism, a citizen was banished, 
without special accusation, trial, or defence, for ten years, which term was 
subsequently reduced to five : he was not deprived of his property ; and 



*'HXiaia, 'HXiacrTai. t STparijyof. 



B. C. 510.] REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES. 105 

at the end of his period of exile was allowed to return to Athens, and to 
resume all the political rights and privileges which he had previously en- 
joyed. It must be recollected that the force which a Greek government 
had at its disposal was very small ; and that it was comparatively easy 
for an ambitious citizen, supported by a numerous bo'dy of partisans, to 
overthrow the constitution and make himself despot. The past history of 
the Athenians had shown the dangers to which they were exposed from 
this cause ; and the Ostracism was the means devised by Cleisthenes for 
removmg quietly from the state a powerful party leader before he could 
caiTy mto execution any violent schemes for the subversion of the govern- 
ment. Every precaution was taken to guard this institution from abuse. 
The Senate and the Ecclesia had first to determine by a special vote wheth- 
er the safety of the state required such a step to be taken. If they de- 
cided in the affirmative, a day was fijstsd for the voting, and each citizen 
wrote upon a tile or oyster-sheU * the name of the person whom he wished 
to banish. The votes were then collected, and if it was found that six 
thousand had been recorded against any one person, he was obliged to 
withdraw from the city within ten days ; if the number of votes did not 
amount to six thousand, nothing was done. The large number of votes 
required for the ostracism of a person (one fourth of the entire citizen 
population) was a sufficient guaranty that a very large proportion of the 
citizens considered him dangerous to the state. It is a proof of the utiUty 
of this institution, that from the time of its estabhshment no further at- 
tempt was made by any Athenian citizen to ovei:throw the democracy by 
forccf 

§ 13. The reforms of Cleisthenes were received with such popular fa- 
vor, and so greatly increased the mfluence of their author, that Isagoras 
saw no hope for him and his party except by calling in the interference of 
Cleomenes and the Lacedaemonians. This was readily promised, and her- 
alds were sent from Sparta to Athens, demanding the expulsion of Cleis- 
thenes and the rest of the Alcmaeonidae, as the accursed family on whom 
rested the pollution of Cylon's murder. Cleisthenes, not daring to disobey 
the Lacedfemonian government, retired voluntarily ; and thus Cleomenes, 
arriving at Athens shortly afterwards with a small force, found himself un- 

* Ostracon {oarpaKov)^ whence the name of Ostracism (ocrrpaKiarfios). 

t It is quite idle to attempt a defence of the practice of ostracism. It was mani- 
festly and atrociously unjust, and was never put in force without great injury to the 
country; and though it is true in form that no single citizen attempted to overthrow the 
democracy after its establishment, yet parties, under the lead of individuals, made several 
attempts that were temporarily successful. Ostracism subjected the wisest and best of the 
Athenians to the whims and caprices of the mob, without remedy. Men were exiled for 
ten years, often for no better reason than that given by the rustic, too illiterate to inscribe 
the name of his victim upon the shell, that he was tired of hearing Aristeides called th« 
Just. Such an institution never was, and in the nature of things never could be, usefuL 
To call it so i illogical ; since nothing can be useful which is unjust. — Ed. 
14 



106 HISTOBY OF GREECE. [Chap. XI. 

disputed master of the city. He first expelled seven hundred families 
pointed out by Isagoras, and then attempted to dissolve the Senate of Five 
Hundred, and place the government in the hands of three hundi^ed of his 
friends and partisans. This proceeding excited general indignation ; the 
people rose in arms ; and Cleomenes and Isagoras took refuge in the 
Acropolis. At the end of two days their provisions were exhausted, and 
they were obliged to capitulate. Cleomenes and the Lacedaemonian troops, 
as well as Isagoras, were allowed to retire in safety ; but all their adher- 
ents who were captured with them were put to death by the Athenian 
people. Cleisthenes and the seven hundred exiled families were immedi- 
ately recalled, and the new constitution was materially strengthened by the 
failure of this attempt to overtlirow it. 

§ 14. The Athenians had now openly broken with Sparta. Fearing 
the vengeance of this formidable state, Cleisthenes sent envoys to Arta- 
phernes, the Persian satrap at Sardis, to sohcit the Persian alliance, which 
was offered on condition of the Athenians' sending earth and water to the 
king of Persia as a token of their submission. The envoys promised com- 
pHance ; but on their return to Athens, their countrymen repudiated their 
proceeding with indignation. Meantime, Cleomenes was preparing to 
take vengeance upon the Athenians, and to establish Isagoras as a despot 
over them. He summoned the Peloponnesian allies to the field, but with- 
out informing them of the object of the expedition ; and at the same time 
he concerted measures with the Thebans and the Chalcidians of Euboea 
for a simultaneous attack upon Attica. The Peloponnesian army, com- 
manded by the two kings, Cleomenes and Demaratus, entered Attica, and 
advanced as far as Eleusis ; but when the allies became aware of the object 
for which they had been summoned, they refused to march farther. The 
power of Athens was not yet sufficiently great to inspire jealousy among 
the other Greek states ; and the Corinthians, who still smarted under the 
recollection of the sufferings inflicted upon them by their own despots, took 
the lead in denouncing the attempt of Cleomenes to crush the liberties of 
Athens, Their remonstrances were seconded by Demaratus, the other 
Spartan king ; so that Cleomenes found it necessary to abandon the ex- 
pedition and return home. The dissension of the two kings on this occa- 
sion is said to have led to the enactment of the law at Sparta, that 
both kings should never have the command of the army at the same 
time. 

The unexpected retreat of the Peloponnesian army dehvered the Athe- 
nians from their most formidable enemy, and they lost no time in turn- 
ing their arms against their other foes. Marching into Bceotia, they de- 
feated the Thebans, and then crossed over into Euboea, where they gained 
a decisive victory over the Chalcidians. In order to secure their dominion 
in Euboea, and at the same time to provide for their poorer citizens, the 
Athenians distributed the estates of the wealthy Chalcidian land-owners 



B. C. 508.] 



SUCCESSES OF THE ATHENIANS. 



107 



among four thousand of their citizens, who settled in the country under 
the name of GlerucM.* 

§ 15. The successes of Athens had excited the jealousy of the Spartans, 
and they now resolved to make a third attempt to overthrow the Athenian 
democracy. They had meantime discovered the deception which had been 
practised upon them by the Delphic oracle ; and they invited Hippias to 
come from Sigeum to Sparta, in order to restore him to Athens. The ex- 
perience of the last campaign had taught them that they could not calcu- 
late upon the cooperation of their allies without first obtaining their ap- 
proval of the project ; and they therefore summoned deputies fi'om all their 
allies to meet at Sparta, in order to determine respecting the restoration 
of Hippias. The despot was present at the congress ; and tlie Sjiartans 
urged the necessity of crushing the growing insolence of the Athenians by 
placing over them their former master. But their proposal was received 
with universal repugnance ; and the Corinthians again expressed the gen- 
eral indignation at the design. " Surely heaven and earth are about to 
change places, when you Spartans propose to set up in the cities that 
wicked and bloody thing called a Despot. First try what it is for your- 
selves at Sparta, and then force it upon others. If you persist in a scheme 
so wicked, know that the Corinthians will not second you." These vehe- 
ment remonstrances were received with such approbation by the other 
allies, that the Spartans found it necessary to abandon their project. 
Hippias returned to Sigeum, and afterwards proceeded to the court of 
Darius. 

§ 16. Athens had now entered upon her glorious career. The institu- 
tions of Cleisthenes had given her citizens a personal interest in the wel- 
fare and the grandeur of their country. A spirit of the warmest patriot- 
ism rapidly sprang up among them ; and the history of the Persian wars, 
which followed almost immediately, exhibits a striking proof of the heroic 
sacrifices which they were prepared to make for the liberty and indepen- 
dence of their state. 



* KXjjpovxot, that is, " lot-holders.' 




Coin of Athens. 



108 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XIL 






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Ancient Sculptures from Selinus. 



CHAPTER Xn. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK COLONIES. 

§ 1. Connection of the Subject with the General History of Greece. § 2. Origin of the 
Greek Colonies and their Relation to the Mother Country. § 3. Characteristics common to 
most of the Greek Colonies. § 4. The ^Eolic, Ionic, and Doric Colonies in Asia. Miletus 
the most important, and the Parent of numerous Colonies. Ephesus. Phocsea. § 5. 
Colonies in the South of Italy and Sicily. History of Cumae. ^ 6. Colonies in Sicily. 
Syracuse and Agrigentum the most important. Phalaris, Despot of Agrigentum. 
§ 7. Colonies in Magna Grfficia (the South of Italy). Sybaris and Croton. War be- 
tween these Cities, and the Destruction of Sybaris. § 8. Epizephyrian Locri: its Law- 
giver, Zaleucus. Rliegium. § 9. Tarentum. Decline of the Cities in Magna Grsecia. 
^10. Colonies in Gaul and Spain. Massalia. § 11. Colonies in Africa. Cyrene. 
§ 12. Colonies' in Epeirus, Macedonia, and Thrace. § 13. Importance of a Knowledge 
of the History of the Greek Colonies. 



§ 1. An account of the Greek colonies forms an important part of the 
history of Greece. It has been ah-eady observed, that Hellas did not in- 
dicate a country marked by certain geographical limits, but included the 
■whole body of Hellenes, in whatever part of the world they might be 
settled. Thus, the inhabitants of Trapezus on the farthest shores of the 
Black Sea, of Cyrene in Africa, and of MassaUa in the South of Gaul, 
were as essentially members of Hellas as the citizens of Athens and Spar- 
ta. They all gloried in the name of Hellenes ; they all boasted of their 
descent from their common ancestoi*, Hellen ; and they aU possessed and 
frequently exercised the right of contending in the Olympic games and 
the other national festivals of Greece. 

The vast number of Greek colonies, their wide-spread diffusion over all 
parts of the Mediterranean, which thus became a kind of Grecian lake, 
their rapid growth in wealth, power, and intelligence, afford the most strik- 



Chap. XII.] THE GREEK COLONIES. 109 

mg proofs of tlie greatness of this wonderful people. It would cany us 
too far to give an account of the origin of all these colonies, or to narrate 
their history at any length. We must content ourselves with briefly men- 
tioning the more important of them, after stating the causes to which 
they owed their origin, the relation in which they stood to the mother 
country, and certain characteristics which were common to them all. 

§ 2. Civil dissensions and a redundant population were the two chief 
causes of the origin of most of the Greek colonies.* They were usually 
undertaken with the approbation of the cities from which they issued, and 
under the management of leaders appointed by them. In most cases the 
Delphic oracle had previously given the divine sanction to the enterprise, 
which was also undertaken under the encouragement of the gods of the 
mother city. But a Greek colony was always considered politically inde- 
pendent of the latter, and emancijaated from its control. The only con- 
nection between them was one of fiUal affection and of common religious 
ties. The colonists worshipped in their new settlement the deities whom 
they had been accustomed to honor in their native country ; and the 
sacred fire, which was constantly kept burning on their public hearth, was 
taken by them from the Prytaneum of the city from which they sprung. 
They usually cherished a feeling of reverential respect for the mother city, 
which they displayed by sending deputations to the principal festivals of 
the latter, and also by bestowing places of honor and other marks of re- 
spect upon the ambassadors and other members of the mother city, when 
they visited the colony. In the same spirit, they paid divine worship to 
the founder of the colony after his death, as the representative of the 
mother city ; and when the colony in its turn became a parent, it usually 
sought a leader fx'om the state from which it had itself sprung. It was 
accordingly considered a violation of sacred ties for a mother country and 
a colony to make war upon one another. These bonds, however, were 
often insufficient to maintain a lasting union ; and the memorable quarrel 
between Corinth and her colony of Corcyra wiU show how easily they 
might be severed by the ambition or the interest of either state. 

§ 3. The Greek colonies, unlike most which have been founded in mod- 
ern times, did not consist of a few straggling bands of adventurers, scat- 
tered over the country in which they settled, and only coalescing into a 
city at a later period. On the contrary, the Greek colonists formed from 
the beginning an organized poUtical body. Their first care upon settling 
in their adopted country was to found a city, and to erect in it those pub- 
lic buildings which were essential to the religious and social life of a 
Greek. Hence it Avas quickly adorned with temples for the worship of 
the gods, with an agora or place of public meeting for the citizens, with a 

* A colony was called airoiKia ; a colonist, airoiKos ; the mother city, /xjjrpoTroXis, 
and the leader of a colony oIkktttjS' 



110 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap, XII 

gyirmasium for the exercise of the youth, and at a later time with a thea- 
tre for dramatic representations. Almost every colonial Greek city was 
built upon the sea-coast, and the site usually selected contained a hill suf- 
ficiently lofty to form an acropolis. The spot chosen for the purpose was 
for the most part seized by force from the original inhabitants of the coun- 
try. The relation in which the colonists stood to the latter naturally 
varied in diiferent localities. In some places they were reduced to slavery 
or expelled from the district ; in others they became the subjects of the 
conquerors, or were admitted to a share of their political rights. In many 
cases intermarriages took place between the colonists and the native popu- 
lation, and thus a foreign element was introduced among them, — a cir- 
cumstance which must not be lost sight of, especially in tracing the his- 
tory of the Ionic colonies. 

It has frequently been observed that colonies are favorable to the de- 
velopment of democracy. Ancient customs and usages cannot be pre- 
served in a colony as at home. Men are of necessity placed on a greater 
equality, since they have to share the same hardships, to overcome the 
same difficulties, and to face the same dangers. Hence it is difficult for a 
single man or for a class to maintain peculiar privileges, or to exercise a 
permanent authority over the other colonists. Accordingly, we find that 
a democratical form of government was established in most of the Greek 
colonies at an earlier period than in the mother country, and that an aris- 
tocracy could rarely maintain its ground for any length of time. Owing 
to the freedom of their institutions, and to their favorable position for com- 
mercial enterprise, many of the Greek colonies became the most flourish- 
ing cities in the Hellenic world ; and in the earlier period of Grecian his- 
tory several of them, such as Miletus and Ephesus in Asia, Syracuse and 
Agrigentum in Sicily, and Croton and Sybaris in Italy, surpassed all the 
cities of the mother country in power, population, and wealth. 

The Grecian colonies maybe arranged in four groups : 1. Those found- 
ed in Asia Minor and the adjoining islands ; 2. Tliose in the western parts 
of the Mediterranean, in Italy, Sicily, Gaul, and Spain ; 3. Those in 
Africa ; 4. Those in Epeirus, Macedonia, and Thrace. 

§ 4. The earliest Greek colonies were those founded on the western 
shores of Asia Minor. They were divided into three great masses, each 
bearing the name of that section of the Greek race with which they claimed 
affinity. The ^olic cities covered the northern part of this coast ; the 
lonians occupied the centre, and the Dorians the southern portion. The 
origin of these colonies is lost in the mythical age ; and the legends of the 
Greeks respecting them have been given in a previous part of the present 
work.* Their political history will claim our attention when we come to 
relate the rise and progress of the Persian empire ; and their successful 

* See pp. 33. 34 



B. C. 735.] COLONIES m ITALY AND SICILY. 11] ' 

cultivation of Kterature and the arts will form the chief subject of our next 
chapter. It is sufficient to state on the present occasion that the Ionic 
cities were early distinguished by a spirit of commercial enterprise, and 
soon rose superior in wealth and in power to their ^olian and Dorian 
neighbors. Among the Ionic cities themselves Miletus was the most flour- 
ishing, and during the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ was the 
first commercial city in Hellas. In search of gain its adventurous mari- 
ners penetrated to the farthest parts of the Mediterranean and its adjacent 
seas ; and for the sake of protecting and enlarging its commerce, it planted 
numerous colonies, which are said to have been no fewer than eighty. Most 
of them were founded on the Propontis and the Euxine ; and of these, 
Cyzicus on the former, and Sinope on the latter sea, became the most 
celebrated. Sinope was the emporium of the Milesian commerce in the 
Euxine, and became in its turn the parent of many prosperous colonies. 

Ephesus, which became at a later time the first of the Ionic cities, was 
at this period inferior to Miletus in population and in wealth. It was never 
distinguished for its enterprise at sea, and it planted few maritime colonies ; 
it owed its greatness to its trade with the interior, and to its large terri- 
tory, which it gradually obtained at the expense of the Lydians. Other 
Ionic cities of less importance than Ephesus possessed a more powerful 
navy ; and the adventurous voyages of the Phocasans deserve to be par- 
ticularly mentioned, in which they not only visited the coasts of Gaul and 
Spain, but even planted in those countries several colonies, of which Mas- 
siUa became the most prosperous and celebrated. 

§ 5. The colonies of whose origin we have an historical account began 
to be founded soon after the first Olympiad. Those estabhshed in Sicily 
and the South of Italy claim our first attention, as well on account of their 
importance as of the priority of their foundation. Like the Asiatic colo- 
nies, they were of various origin ; and the inhabitants of Chalcis in Euboea, 
of Corinth, Megara, and Sparta, and the Achaeans and Locrians, were all 
concerned in them. 

One of the Grecian settlements in Italy lays claim to a much earlier 
date than any other in the country. This is the Carapanian Cumge, situ- 
ated near Cape Misenum, on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is said to have been 
a joint colony from the JEolic Cyme in Asia and from Chalcis in Eubcea, 
and to have been founded, according to common chronology, in b. c. 1050. 
This date is of course uncertain : but there is no doubt that it was the 
most ancient Grecian establishment in Italy, and that a long period elapsed 
before any other Greek colonists were bold enough to follow in the same 
track. Cumte was for a long time the most flourishing city in Campania : 
and it was not till its decline in the fifth century before the Christian ei*a 
that Capua rose into importance. 

§ 6. The earliest Grecian settlement in Sicily was founded in b. c. 735. 
The greater part of Sicily was then inhabited by the rude tribes of Sicels 



112 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XII 



and Sicanians. The Carthaginian settlements mostly lay on the western 
side of the island ; but the eastern and the southern coasts were occupied 
only by the Sicels and Sicanians, who were easily driven by the Greeks 
into the interior of the country. The extraordinary fertility of the land, 
united with the facility of its acquisition, soon attracted numerous colonists 
from various parts of Greece ; and there arose on the coasts of Sicily a 
succession of flourisliing cities, of which a list is given below.* Of these, 
Syracuse and Agrigentum, both Dorian colonies, became the most power- 
ful. The former was founded by the Corinthians in b. c. 734, and at the 
time of its greatest prosperity contained a population of five hundred thou- 
sand souls, and was surrounded by walls twenty-two miles in circuit. Its 
greatness, however, belongs to a later period of Grecian history ; and we 
know scarcely anything of its affairs till the usurpation of Gelon in b. c. 
485. Agrigentum was of later origin, for it was not founded till b. c. 582, 
by the Dorians of Gela, which had itself been colonized by Rhodians and 
Cretans. But its growth was most rapid, and it soon rose to an extraor- 
dinary degree of prosperity and power. It was celebrated in the ancient 
world for the magnificence of its public buildings, and within a century 
after its foundation was called by Pindar " the fairest of mortal cities." 
Its early history only claims our attention on account of the despotism of 




fSYBACUS/E 



Map of the chief Greek Colonies in Sicily. 



* 1. Naxos, the earliest, founded by the Chalcidians, b. c. 735. 2. Syracuse, founded 
by the Corinthians, b. c. 734. 3. Leontini and Catana, founded by Naxos in Sicily, b. c. 
730. 4. Hyblasan Megara, founded by Megara, b. c. 728. 5. Gela, founded by the Lindians 
in Rhodes, and by the Cretans, b. c. 690. 6. Zancle, afterwards called Messana, founded by 
the Cumseans and Chalcidians : its date is uncertain. 7. Acrte, founded by Syracuse, b. c. 
664. 8. Casmense, founded by Syracuse, B. C. 644. 9. Sehnus, founded by Hybliean 
Megara, b. c. 630. 10. Camarina, founded by Syracuse, b. c. 599. 11. Acragas, better 
known by the Eoman name of Agrigentum, founded by Gela, b. c. 582. 12. Himera, 
founded by Zancle: its date uncertain. 



B. C. 720.] COLONIES IN ITALY. 118 

Phalaris, who has obtained a proverbial celebrity as a cruel and inhuman 
tyrant. His exact date is uncertain ; but he was a contemporary of Peisis- 
tratus and Croesus ; and the commencement of his reign may perhaps be 
placed in b. c. 570^ He is said to have burnt alive the victims of his 
cruelty in a brazen buU ; and this celebrated instrument of torture is not 
only noticed by Pindar, but was in existence at Agrigentum in later 
times. He was engaged in frequent wars with his neighbors, and ex- 
tended his power and dominion on all sides ; but his cruelties rendered 
him so abhorred by the people, that they suddenly rose against him, and 
put him to death.* 

The prosperity of the Greek cities in Sicily afterwards received a severe 
check from the hostilities of the Carthaginians; but for two centuries and 
a half after the first Greek settlement in the island they did not come into 
contact with the latter people, and were thus left at liberty to develop their 
resources without any opposition from a foreign power. 

§. 7. The Grecian colonies in Italy began to be planted at nearly the 
same time as in Sicily. They eventually lined the whole southern coast, 
as far as Cumae on the one sea, and Tarentum on the other. They even 
surpassed those in Sicily in number and importance ; and so numerous and 
flourishing did they become, that the South of Italy received the name of 
Magna Gr^ecia. Of these, two of the earhest and most prosperous were 
Sybaris and Croton, both situated upon the Gulf of Tarentum, and both of 
Achaean origin. Sybaris was planted in b. c. 720, and Croton in B. c. 710. 
For two centuries they seem to have lived in harmony, and we know 
scarcely anything of their history till their fatal contest in B. c. 510, which 
ended in the ruin of Sybaris. During the whole of this period they were 
two of the most flourishing cities in all HeUas. The walls of Sybaris em- 
braced a circuit of six miles, and those of Croton were not less than twelve 
miles in circumference; but the former, though smaller, was the more 
powerful, since it possessed a larger extent of territory and a greater num- 
ber of colonies, among which was the distant town of Posidonia (Pfestum), 
whose magnificent ruins still attest its former greatness. Several native 
tribes became the subjects of Sybaris and Croton, and their dominions 
extended across the Calabrian peninsula from sea to sea. 

Sybaris in particular attained to an extraordinary degree of wealth ; and 
its inhabitants were so notorious for their luxury, effeminacy, and debauch- 
ery, that their name has become proverbial for a voluptuary in ancient 
and modern times. Many of the anecdotes recorded of them bear on their 
face the exaggerations of a later age ; but their great wealth is attested by 

* There are extant certain Greek letters attributed to Phalaris, celebrated on account 
of the literary controversy to which they gave rise in modem times. Their genuineness 
was maintained by Boyle and the contemporarj' scholars of Oxford ; but Bentley, in his 
masterly " Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris," in reply to Boyle, proved beyond 
question that they were the production of a sophist of a later age. 

15 



114 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XII 

the fact, that five thousand horsemen, clothed in magnificent attire, formed 
a part of the procession in certain festivals of the city, whereas Athens in 
her best days could not number more than twelve hundred knights. 

Croton was distinguished for the excellence of its physicians or surgeons, 
and for the numbers of its citizens who gained prizes at the Olympic games. 
Its government was an aristocracy, and was in the hands of a senate oi 
one thousand persons. It was in this city that Pythagoras settled, and 
founded a fraternity, of which an account is given in the following chapter. 

The war between these two powerful cities is the most important event 
recorded in the history of Magna Grascia. It arose from the civil dissen- 
sions of Sybaris. The oUgarchical government was overthrown by a 
popular insurrection, headed by a citizen of the name of Telys, who suc- 
ceeded in making himself despot of the city. The leading members of the 
ohgarchical party, five hundred in number, were driven into exile ; and 
when they took refuge at Croton, their surrender was demanded by Telys, 
and war threatened in case of refusal. This demand excited the greatest 
alarm at Croton, since the military strength of Sybaris was decidedly 
superior ; and it was only owing to the urgent persuasions of Pythagoras 
that the Crotoniates resolved to brave the vengeance of their neighbors 
rather than incur the disgrace of betraying suppliants. In the war which 
followed, Sybaris is said to have taken the field with three hundred thou- 
sand men, and Croton with one hundred thousand, — numbers which seem 
to have been grossly exaggerated. The Crotoniates were commanded by 
Milo, a disciple of Pythagoras, and the most celebrated athlete of his time, 
and they were further reinforced by a body of Spartans under the com- 
mand of Dorieus, )'ounger brother of King Cleomenes, who was sailing 
along the Gulf of Tarentum, in order to found a settlement in Sicily. 
The two armies met on the banks of the river Treeis or Trionto, and a 
bloody battle was fought, in which the Sybarites were defeated with pro- 
digious slaughter. The Crotoniates followed up their victory by the cap- 
ture of the city of Sybaris, which they razed to the ground ; and in order 
to obliterate all traces of it, they turned the course of the river Crathis 
through its ruins (b. c. 510). The destruction of this wealthy and power- 
ful city excited strong sympathy through the Hellenic world; and the 
Milesians, with whom the Sybarites had always maintained the most 
friendly connections, shaved their heads in token of mourning.* 

§ 8. Of the numerous other Greek settlements in the South of Italy, 
those of Locri, Rhegium, and Tarentum were the most important. 

Locri, called Epizephyrian, from the neighborhood of Cape Zephyrium, 
was founded by a body of Locrian freebooters from the mother country, in 
B. c. 683. Their early history is memorable on account of their being the 
first Hellenic people who possessed a body of written laws. They are 
said to have suffered so greatly from lawlessness and disorder, as to apply 

* In B. c. 443 the Athenians founded Thurii, near the site of Sybaris. 



B. C. 664.] 



COLONIES IN ITALY. 



115 



to the Delphic oracle for advice, and were thus led to accept the ordi- 
nances of Zaleucus, who is represented to have been originally a shepherd. 
His laws were promulgated in b. c. 664, forty years earlier than those of 
Draco at Athens. They resembled the latter in the severity of their pun- 
ishments ; but they were observed for a long period by the Locrians, who 
were so averse to any change in them, that whoever proposed a new law 
had to appear in the public assembly with a rope round his neck, which 
was immediately tightened if he failed to convince his fellow-citizens of 
the necessity of his propositions. Two anecdotes are related of Zaleucus, 
which deserve mention, though their authenticity cannot be guaranteed. 
His son had been guilty of an offence, the penalty of which was the loss of 
both eyes : the father, in order to maintain the law, and yet save his son 
from total blindness, submitted to the loss of one of his own eyes. Another 
ordinance of Zaleucus forbade any citizen to enter the senate-house in 
arms under penalty of death. On a war suddenly breaking out, Zaleucus 
transgressed his own law ; and when his attention was called to it by one 
present, he replied that he would vindicate the law, and straightway fell 
upon his sword. 




Map of the chief Greek Colonies in Southern ItaJy. 



116 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIL 

Eliegium, situated on the Straits of Messina, opposite Sicily, was colon- 
ized by the Chalcidians, but received a large number of Messenians, who 
settled here at the close both of the first and second Messenian wars. 
Anaxilas, who made himself despot of the city about b. c. 500, was of Mes- 
senian descent; and it was he who changed the name of the Sicilian 
Zancle into Messana, when he seized the latter city in b. c. 494. 

§ 9. Tarentum, situated at the head of the gulf which bears its name, 
was a colony from Sparta, and was founded about B. c. 708. During the 
long absence of the Spartans in the first Messenian war, an illegitimate 
race of citizens had been born, to whom the name of Partheniai (sons of 
maidens) was given. Being not only treated with contempt by the other 
Spartans, but excluded from the citizenship, they formed a conspiracy 
under Phalanthus, one of their number, against the government; and 
when their plot was detected, they were allowed to quit the country and 
plant a colony under his guidance. It was to these circumstances that 
Tarentum owed its origin. It was admirably situated for commerce, and 
was the only town in the gulf which possessed a perfectly safe harbor. 
After the destruction of Sybaris, it became the most powerful and flourish- 
ing city in Magna Greecia, and continued to enjoy great prosperity till its 
subjugation by the Romans. Although of Spartan origin, it did not main- 
tain Spartan habits ; and its citizens were noted at a later time for their 
love of luxury and pleasure. 

The cities of Magna Grsecia rapidly declined in power after the com- 
mencetoent of the fifth century before the Christian era. This was mainly 
owing to two causes. First, the destruction of Sybaris deprived the 
Greeks of one of their most powerful cities, and of a territory and an influ- 
ence over the native population, to A\'hich no other Greek town could suc- 
ceed ; and, secondly, they were now for the first time brought into contact 
with the warlike Samnites and Lucanians, who began to spread from 
Middle Italy towards the south. Cumas was taken by the Samnites, and 
Posidonia (Pgestum) by the Lucanians ; and the latter people in course of 
time deprived the Greek cities of the whole of their inland territory. 

§ 10. The Grecian settlements in the distant countries of Gaul and 
Spain were not numerous. The most celebrated was Massalia, the modem 
Marseilles, founded by the Ionic Phoceeans in b. c. 600. It planted five 
colonies along the eastern coast of Spain and was the chief Grecian city 
in the sea west of Italy. The commerce of the Massaliots was extensive, 
and their navy sufficiently powerful to repel the aggressions of Carthage. 
They possessed considerable influence over the Celtic tribes in their neigh- 
borhood, among whom they diffused the arts of civilized life, and a knowl- 
edge of the Greek alphabet and Uterature. 

§ 11. The northern coast of Africa between the territories of Carthage 
and Egypt was also occupied by Greek colonists. About the year 650 B. c. 
the Greeks were for the first time allowed to settle in Egypt and to carry 



B. C. 664.J COLONIES m MACEDONIA AND THKACB. 117 

• 

on commerce with the country. This privilege they owed to Psammeti- 
chus, who had raised himself to the throne of Egypt by the aid of Ionian 
and Carian mercenaries. The Greek traders were not slow in avaihng 
themselves of the opening of this new and important market, and thus 
became acquainted with the neighboring coast of Africa. Here they 
founded the city of Gyrene about B. c. 630. It was a colony from the 
island of Thera in the ^gean, which was itself a colony from Spai'ta. 
The situation of Gyrene was well chosen. It stood on the edge of a range 
of hiUs, at the distance of ten miles from the Mediterranean, of which it 
commanded a fine view. These hUls descended by a succession of terraces 
to the port of the town, called ApoUonia. The climate was most salubrious, 
and the soil was distinguished by extraordinary fertility. With these 
advantages Gyrene rapidly grew in wealth and power ; and its greatness is 
attested by the iomaense remains which stUl mark its desolate site. Unhke 
most Grecian colonies, Gyrene was governed by kings for eight genera- 
tions. Battus, the founder of the colony, was the first king ; and his suc- 
cessors bore alternately the names of Arcesilaiis and Battus. On the 
death of Arcesilaiis IV., which must have happened after b. c. 460, royalty 
was abolished and a democratical form of government estabUshed. 

Gyrene planted several colonies in the adjoining district, of which 
Barca, founded about b. c. 560, was the most important. 

§ 12. The Grecian settlements in Epehus, Macedonia, and Thrace claim 
a few words. 

There were several Grecian colonies situated on the eastern side of the 
Ionian Sea, in Epeirus and its immediate neighborhood. Of these the 
island of Gorcyra, now called Gorfu, was the most wealthy and powerful. 
It was founded by the Gorinthians, about b. c. 700 ; and in consequence of 
its commercial activity it soon became a formidable rival to the mother 
city. Hence a war broke out between tliese two states at an early period ; 
and the most ancient naval battle on record was the one fought between 
their fleets in b. c 664. The dissensions between the mother city and her 
colony are frequently mentioned in Grecian history, and were one of the 
immediate causes of the Peloponnesian war. Notwithstanding their quar- 
rels, they joined in planting four Grecian colonies upon the same line of 
coast, — Leucas, Anactorium, Apollonia, and Epidamnus : in the settle- 
ment of the two former the Corinthians were the principals, and in that of 
the two latter the Gorcyrteans took the leading part. 

The colonies in Macedonia and Thrace were very numerous, and ex- 
tended all along the coast of the JEgean, of the Hellespont, of the Pro- 
pontis, and of the Euxine, from the borders of Thessaly to the mouth of 
the Danube. Of these we can only glance at the most important. The 
colonies on the coast of Macedonia were chiefly founded by Ghalcis and 
Eretria in Eubcea ; and the peninsula of Ghalcidice, with its three project- 
mg headlands, was covered with th(iu- settlements, and derived its name 



118 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XIL 



from the former city. The Corinthians hkewise planted a few colonies on 
this coast, of which Potidsea, on the narrow isthmus of Pallene, most 
deserves mention. 

Of the colonies in Thrace, the most flourishing were Selymbria and 
Byzantium,* both founded by the Megarians, who appear as an enterpris- 
ing maritime people at an early period. The farthest Grecian settlement 
on the western shores of the Euxine was the Milesian colony of Istria, 
near the southern mouth of the Danube. 

§ 1 3. The preceding survey of the Grecian colonies shows the wide dif- 
fusion of the Hellenic race in the sixth century before the Christian era. 
Their history has come down to us in such a fragmentary and unconnected 
state, that it has been imposible to render it interesting to the reader; but 
it could not be passed over entirely, since some knowledge of the origin 
and progress of the more important of these cities is absolutely neces- 
sary, in order to understand aright many subsequent events in Grecian 
history. 

* The foundation of Byzantium is placed in B. c. 667. 




Coin of CjT«ne, representing on the reverse the Silphium, which was the chief article intlw 
export trade of the city. 



Chjlp.XIILI 



HISTORY OF LITERATURE. 



119 




Alcaeus and Sappho. From a Painting on a Vase. 



CHAPTER Xm. 



HISTORY OF LITERATURE. 

$ 1. Perfection of the Greeks in Literature. § 2. Greek Epic Poetry divided into Two 
Classes, Homeric and Hesiodic. ^ 3. Poems of Hesiod. § 4. Origin of Greek LjTic 
Poetry. § 5. Archilochus. ^ 6. Simonides of Amorgos. § 7. Tyrtseus and Alcman. 
4 8. Arion and Stesichorus. § 9. Alcaeus and Sappho. § 10. Anacreon. § 11. The 
Seven Sages of Greece. ^ 12. The Ionic School of Philosophy. Thales, Anaximander, 
and Anaximenes. § 13. The Eleatic School of Philosophy. Xcnophanes. § 14. The 
Pythagorean School of Philosophy. Life of Pythagoras. Foundation and Suppression 
of his Society in the Cities of Magna Grsecia. 



§ 1. The perfection which the Greeks attained in literature and art is 
one of the most striking features in the history of the people. Their 
intellectual activity and their keen appreciation of the beautiful constantly 
gave birth to new forms of creative genius. There was an uninterrupted 
progress in the development of the Grecian mind from the earliest dawn 
of the history of the people to the downfall of their political independence ; 
and each succeeding age saw the production of some of those master works 
of genius which have been the models and the admiration of all subsequent 
time. It is one of the objects of the present work to trace the different 
phases of this intellectual growth. During the two centuries and a half 
comprised in this book, many species of composition, in which the Greeks 
afterwards became pre-eminent, were either unknown or little practised. 
The drama was still in its infancy, and prose-writing, as a branch of popu- 
lar literature, was only beginning to be cultivated ; but epic poetry had 



120 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChA?. XUI, 

reached its culminating point at the commencement of this epoch, and 
throughout the whole period the lyric muse shone with undiminished lus- 
tre. It is therefore to these two species of composition that our attention 
will be more particularly directed on the present occasion. 

§ 2. There were in antiquity two large collections of epic poetry. The 
one comprised poems relating to the great events and enterprises of the He- 
roic Age, and characterized by a certain poetical unity ; the other included 
works tamer in character and more desultory in their mode of treatment, 
containing the genealogies of men and gods, narratives of the exploits of 
separate heroes, and descriptions of the ordinary pursuits of life. The 
poems of the former class passed under the name of Homer ; while those 
of the latter were in the same general way ascribed to Hesiod. The 
former were the productions of the Ionic and ^olic minstrels in Asia 
Minor, among whom Homer stood pre-eminent and ecKpsed the brightness 
of the rest : the latter were the compositions of a school of bards in the 
neighborhood of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, among whom in like manner 
Hesiod enjoyed the greatest celebrity. The poems of both schools were 
composed in the hexameter metre and in a similar dialect ; but they dif- 
fered widely in almost every other feature. Of the Homeric poems, and 
of the celebrated controversy to which they have given rise in modem 
times, we have already spoken at length : * it therefore only remains to 
say a few words upon those ascribed to Hesiod. 

§ 3. Three works have come down to us bearing the name of Hesiod, — 
the " Works and Days," the " Theogony," and a description of the " Shield 
of Hercules." The first two were generally considered in antiquity as the 
genuine productions of Hesiod ; but the " Shield of Hercules " and the 
other Hesiodic poems were admitted to be the compositions of other poets 
of his school. Many ancient critics, indeed, believed the " Works and 
Days " to be the only genuine work of Hesiod, and their opinion has been 
adopted by most modern scholars. Of Hesiod himself there are various 
legends related by later writers ; but we learn from his own poem that he 
was a native of Ascra, a village at the foot of Mount Helicon, to which 
his father had migrated from the ^olian Cyme in Asia Minor. He fur- 
ther tells us, that he gained the prize at Chalcis in a poetical contest ; and 
that he was robbed of a fair share of his heritage by the unrighteous de- 
cision of judges who had been bribed by his brother Perses. The latter 
became afterwards reduced in circumstances, and applied to his brother 
for relief; and it is to him that Hesiod addresses his didactic poem of the 
" Works and Days," in which he lays down various moral and social max- 
ims for the regulation of his conduct and his life. It contains an interest- 
mg representation of the feelings, habits, and superstitions of the inral 
population of Greece in the earlier ages, and hence enjoyed at all periods 

* See Chap. V. 



B. C. 650.] LYRIC POETRY. 121 

great popularity among this class. At Sparta, on the contrary, where war 
was deemed the only occupation worthy of a freeman, the poems of Hesiod 
were held in contempt. Cleomenes called him the bard of the Helots, in 
contrast with Homer, the delight of the warrior. Respecting the date of 
Hesiod nothing certain can be affirmed. Most ancient authorities make 
him a contemporary of Homer ; but modern writers usually suppose him 
to have flourished two or three generations later than the poet of the Iliad 
and the Odyssey. 

§ 4. The commencement of Greek lyric poetry as a cultivated species 
of composition dates from the middle of the seventh century before the 
Christian era. In the Ionic and JEolic colonies of Asia Minor, and in the 
Doric cities of Peloponnesus, an advancing civilization and an enlarged 
experience had called into existence new thoughts and feelings, and sup- 
phed new subjects for the Muse. At the same time epic poetry, after 
reacliing its climax of excellence in the Iliad and in the Odyssey, had fall- 
en into the hands of mferior bards. The national genius, however, was 
still in all the bloom and vigor of its youth ; and the decay of epic min- 
strelsy only stimulated it more vigorously to present in a new style of 
poetry the new circumstances and feelings of the age. The same desire 
of change, and of adapting the subjects of poetry to the altered condition 
of society, was of itself sufficient to induce poets to vary the metre ; but 
the more immediate cause of this alteration was the improvement of the 
art of music by the Lesbian Terpander and others, in the beginning of the 
seventh century B. c. The lyric poems of the Greeks were composed, not 
for a solitary reader in his chamber, but to be sung on festive occasions, 
either pubUc or private, with the accompaniment of a musical instrument. 
Hence there was a necessary connection between the arts of music and of 
poetry ; and an unprovement in the one led to a corresponding improve- 
ment in the other. 

It would be impossible to pass under review the numerous varieties of 
Grecian lyric song, and to point out aU the occasions which called into 
requisition the aid of the poet. It is sufficient to state, in general, that no 
important event either in the public or private life of a Greek could dis- 
pense with tliis accompaniment ; .and that the song was equally needed to 
solemnize the worship of the gods, to cheer the march to battle, or to enli- 
ven the festive board. The lyric poetry belonging to the brilliant period of 
Greek literature treated in this book has almost entu-ely perished, and all 
that we possess of it consists of a few songs and isolated fragments. Suf- 
ficient, however, remains, to enable us to form an opinion of its surpassing 
excellence, and to regret the more bitterly the irreparable loss we have 
sustained. It is only necessary in this work to caU attention to the most 
distinguished masters of the lyric song, and to illustrate their genius by a 
few specimens of their remains. 

§ 5. The great satmst Ai'chilochus was one of the earliest and most 

16 



122 HISTOET OP GREECE. [Chai. XIII, 

celebrated of all the lyric poets. He flourished about the year 700 B. c. 
His extraordinary poetical genius is attested by the unanimous voice of 
antiquity, which placed him on a level with Homer. He was the first 
Greek poet who composed iambic verses according to fixed rules ; the in 
vention of the elegy is ascribed to him as well as to Callinus ; and he also 
struck out many other new paths in poetry. His fame, however, rests 
chiefly on his terrible satires, composed in the iambic metre,* in which he 
gave vent to the bitterness of a disappointed man. He was poor, the son 
of a slave mother, and therefore held in contempt in his native land. He 
had been a suitor to Neobule, one of the daughters of Lycambes, who first 
promised and afterwards refused to give his daughter to the poet. En- 
raged at this treatment he held up the family to public scorn, in an iambic 
poem, accusing Lycambes of perjury and his daughters of the most aban- 
doned profligacy. His lampoons produced such an effect, that the daugh- 
ters of Lycambes are said to have hanged themselves through shame. 
Discontented at home, the poet accompanied a colony to Thasos ; but he 
was not more happy in his adopted country, which he frequently attacks 
in his satires. He passed a great part of his hfe in wandering in other 
countries, and at length feU in a battle between the Parians and Naxiana. 
The following lines of Archilochus, addressed to his own soul, exhibit at 
the same time the higher attributes of his style, and his own morbid phi- 
losophy : — 

" Soul, my soul, with helpless sorrows overladen and distraught, 
Bear tliee firmly, and to hostile hosts a manly breast oppose ; 
When the foeman's shafts fall thickest, motionless thy post maintain ; 
If victorious, yield thee not to open triumph overmuch, 
Nor, if conquered, cast thee prostrate, nor at home thy lot bewail, 
But in pleasures take thy pleasance and in evils bear thy pain 
Not too much, but understand the rhythm that governs mortal men."t 

§ 6. Simonides of Amorgos, who must not be confounded with his more 
celebrated namesake of Ceos, was a contemporary of Ai'chilochus, with 
whom he shares the honor of inventing the iambic metre. He was bom 
in Samos, but led a colony to the neighboring island of Amorgos, where he 
spent the greater part of his life. He is the earliest of the gnomic poets, 
or moralists in verse. The most important of his extant works is a satiri- 
cal poem " On Women," in which he describes their various characters. 
In order to give a livelier image of the female character he derives their 
difl^erent qualities from the variety of their origin ; the cunning woman being 
formed from the fox, the talkative woman from the dog, the uncleanly wo- 
man from the swine, and so on. The following is a specimen of the poem : — 

" Next in the lot a gallant dame we see. 
Sprung from a mare of noble pedigree. 
No servile work her spirit proud can brook ; 
Her hands were never taught to bake or cook ; 

* " Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo." — Hok. Ars Poet. 79. 
t Translated literally and in the measure of the original by the Editok. 



B. C. 625.] ALCMAN. ARION. 123 

The vapor of the oven makes her ill ; 

She scorns to empty slops or turn the mill. 

No household washings her fair skin deface, 

Her own ablutions are her chief solace. 

Three baths a day, with balms and perfumes rare, 

Eefresh her tender limbs: her long rich hair 

Each time she combs, and decks with blooming flowers 

No spouse more fit than she the idle hours 

Of wealthy lords or kings to recreate, 

And grace the splendor of their courtly state. 

For men of humbler sort, no better guide, 

Heaven, in its wrath, to ruin can provide." * 

§ 7. Tyrtaeus and Alcman were the two great lyric poet? of Sparta^ 
though neither of them was a native of Lacedasmon. The personal his- 
tory of Tyrtaeus, and his warlike songs, which roused the fainting courage 
of the Spartans during the second Messenian war, have already occupied 
our attention-! Alcman was originally a Lydian slave in a S{)artan fami- 
ly, and was emancipated by his master. He lived from about b. c. 670 to 
611 ; and most of his poems were composed in the period which followed 
the conclusion of the second Messenian war. They partake of the char- 
acter of this period, which was one of repose and enjoyment after the 
fatigues and perils of war. Many of his songs celebrate the pleasures of 
good eating and drinking ; but the more important were intended to be 
sung by a chorus at the public festivals of Sparta. His description of 
Night is one of the most striking remains of his genius : — • 

" Now o'er the drowsy earth still Night prevails. 
Calm sleep the mountain-tops and shady vales, 
The rugged cliffs and hollow glens; 
The wild beasts slumber in their dens, 
The cattle on the hill. Deep in the sea 
The countless finny race and monster brood 
Tranquil repose. Even the busy bee 
Forgets her daily toil. The silent wood 
No more with noisy hum of insect rings; 
And all the feathered tribes, by gentle sleep subdued, 
Roost in the glade, and hang their drooping wings." * 

§ 8. Although choral poetry was successfully cultivated by Alcman, it 
received its chief improvements from Arion and Stesichorus. Both of these 
poets composed for a trained body of men ; while the poems of Alcman 
were sung by the popular chorus. 

Arion was a native of Methymna in Lesbos, and spent a great part of 
his life at the court of Periander, tyrant of Corinth, who began to reign 
B. c. 625, Nothing is known of his life beyond the beautiful story of his 
escape from the sailors with whom he sailed from Sicily to Corintli. On 
one occasion, thus runs the story, Arion went to Sicily to take part in a 
musical contest. He won the prize, and, laden with presents, he embarked 
in a Corinthian ship to return to his friend Periander. The rude sailora 

* Translated by Colonel Mure. t See above, p. 72. 



124 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIII. 

I' 

coveted his treasures, and meditated his murder. After imploring them in 
vain to spare his life, he obtained permission to play for the last time on 
his beloved lyre. In festal attire he placed himself on the prow of the 
vessel, invoked the gods in inspired strains, and then threw himself into 
the sea. But many song-loving dolphins had assembled round the vessel, 
and one of them now took the bard on its back, and carried him to Tsena- 
rum, from whence he returned to Corinth in safety, and related his adven- 
ture to Periander. Upon the arrival of the Corintliian vessel, Periander 
inquired of the sailors after Arion, who replied that he had remained behind 
at Tarentum ; but when Ai-ion, at the bidding of Periander, came forward, 
the sailors owned their guilt, and were punished according to their desert. 
In later times there existed at Taenarum a bronze monument representing 
Arion riding on a dolphin. The great improvement in lyric poetry 
ascribed to Arion is the invention of the Dithyramb. This was a choral 
gong and dance in honor of the god Dionysus, and existed in a rude form 
even at an earlier time. Arion, however, converted it into an elaborate 
composition, sung and danced by a chorus of fifty persons specially trained 
for the purpose. Dithyramb is of great interest in the history of poetry, 
since it was the germ from which sprung at a later time the magnificent 
productions of the tragic Muse at Athens. 

Stesichorus was a native of Himera in Sicily. He is said to have been 
born in b. c. 632, to have flourished about b. c. 608, and to have died in 
B. c. 560. He travelled in many parts of Greece, and was buried in Catana, 
where his grave was shown near a gate of the city in later times. He in- 
troduced such great improvements into the Greek chorus, that he is fre- 
quently described as the inventor of choral poetry. He was the first to 
break the monotony of the choral song, which had consisted previously of 
nothing more than one uniform stanza, by dividing it into the Strophe, 
the Antistrophe, and the Epodus, — the turn, the return, and the rest. 

§ 9. AlcEeus and Sappho were both natives of Mytilene, in the island of 
Lesbos, and flourished about B. c. 610-580. Their songs were com- 
posed for a single voice, and not for the chorus, and each of them was the 
inventor of a new metre, which bears the inventor's name, and is familiar 
to us in the well-known odes of Horace. Their poetry was the warm out- 
pouring of the writers' inmost feelings, and presents the lyric poetry of the 
-^olians at its highest point. 

Of the life of Alc^us we have several interesting particulars. He 
fought in the war between the Athenians and Mytilenaeans for the posses^ 
sion of Sigeum (b. c. 606), and incurred the disgrace of leaving his arms 
behind him on the field of battle. He enjoyed, notwithstanding, the repu- 
tation of a brave and skilful warrior, and his house is described by himself 
as furnished with the weapons of war rather than with the instruments of 
his art. He took an active part in the civU dissensions of his native state, 
and warmly espoused the cause of the aristocratical party, to which he 



B. C. 600.] ALGOUS. SAPPHO. 125 

belonged by birth. When the nobles were driven into exile, he endear 
ored to cheer their spirits by a number of most animated odes, full of 
invectives against the popular party and its leaders. In order to oppose 
the attempts of the exiled nobles, Pittacus was unanimously chosen by the 
people as ^symnetes or Dictator. He held his office for ten years (b. c. 
589-579), and during that time he defeated all the efforts of the exiles, 
and established the constitution on a popular basis. When Alcaeus per- 
ceived that all hope of restoration to his native country was gone, he 
travelled into Egypt and other lands. The fragments of his poems which 
remain, and the excellent imitations by Horace, enable us to understand 
something of their character. Those which have received the highest 
praise are his warlike odes,* of which we have a specimen in the following 
description of his palace halls : — 

" From floor to roof the spacious palace halls 

Glitter with war's array; 
With burnished metal clad, the lofty walls 

Beam like the bright noonday. 
There white-plumed helmets hang from many a nail, 

Above in threatening row ; 
Steel-garnished tunics, and broad coats of mail, 

Spread o'er the space below. 
Chalcidian blades enow, and belts, are here. 

Greaves and emblazoned shields ; 
Well-tried protectors from the hostile spear 

On other battle-fields. 
With these good helps our work of war 's begun; 
With these our victory must be won." f 

In some of his poems Alcaeus described the hardships of exile, and the 
perils he encountered in his wanderings by land and by sea ; J while in 
others he sang of the pleasures of love and of wine. 

Sappho, the contemporary of Alc^us, whom he addresses as " the 
violet-haired, spotless, sweetly-smiling Sappho," was the greatest of aU the 
Greek poetesses. The ancient writers agree in expressing the most un 
bounded admhation for her poetry ; Plato in an extant epigram calls her 
the tenth Muse ; and it is related of Solon, that, on hearing for the first 
time the recital of one of her poems, he prayed that he might not see 
death until he had committed it to memory. Of the events of her life we 
have scarcely any information ; and the common story that, being in love 
with Phaon and finding her love unrequited, she leaped down from the 
Leucadian rock, seems to have been an invention of later times. At 
Mytilene Sappho was the centre of a female literary society, the members 
of which were her pupils in poetry, fashion, and gallantry. Modem 

* " Alcsei minaces Camense." — Hoe. Cartft. iv. 9. 7. 
t Translated by Colonel Mure. 

\ " Et te sonantem plenius aureo, 
Alcffie, plectro dura navis, 

Dura fugse mala, dura belli." — Hok. Carm. ii. 13, 26. 



126 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XIII, 

writers have indeed attempted to prove that the moral character of Sapphc 
was free from all reproach, and that her tenderness was as pure as it was 
glowing ; but it is impossible to read the extant fragments of her poetry 
without being forced to come to the conclusion, that a female who could 
write sucli verses could not be the pure and virtuous woman which her 
modern apologists pretend. Her poems were chiefly amatory,* and the 
most important of the fragments which have been preserved is a magnifi- 
cent ode to the Goddess of Love. In several of Sappho's fragments we 
perceive the exquisite taste with which she employed images drawn from 
nature, of which we have an example in the beautiful line imitated by 
Byron, — 

" Hesperus! thou bringest all things."! 

§ 10. Anacreon is the last lyric poet of this period who claims our 
attention. He was a native of the Ionian city of Teos. He spent part of 
his life at Samos, under the patronage of Polycrates, in whose praise he 
wrote many songs. After the death of this despot (b. c. 522), he went to 
Athens, at the invitation of Hipparchus, who sent a galley of fifty oars to 

* " Spirat adhuc amor 
Vivuntque commissi calores 
jEolise fidibus puellae." — Hok. Carm. iv. 9, 10. 

t The charges brought against Sappho are unsustained by a particle of contemporary 
proof. The warm tone of a part of her poetry cannot fairly be used to impeach her personal 
character. The stories of her passion for Phaon, and of her having taken the leap from the 
Leucadian cliff, by way of a water-cure for disappointed love, are the inventions of a later 
age, and are not alluded to by any contemporary authority. The Roman poets, particu- 
larly Ovid, six hundred j'ears after the deatli of Sappho, toolc up and exaggerated the scan- 
dals of the Attic comedians, with whom a burlesque Sappho was a stock character, about 
as much like the real person as the Socrates of the Clouds resembles the philosopher who 
died a martyr to Virtue. 

There is a passage in Aristot-'a (Rhet. I. 9) where he quotes some lines from a poem 
addressed by Alcseus to Sappho, -ind her reply. 

" Alcmus. I fain would speak, but shame withholds my tongue. 
" Sappho. If love of good or noble aims impelled thee, 

Nor ill thy tongue were struggling to declare, 
Shame would not, seated in thine eyes, have held thee, — 

Thou wouldst have spoken out thy purpose fair." 

This is not the style in which a wanton would have been woed, or would have answered a 
poet like Alcseus. Several other names are mentioned in disreputable connection with hers, 
by the ancient libellers. But Archilochus died before Sappho was born ; Hipponax was bom 
after Sappho died ; Anacreon was two years old when Sappho was forty-eight; — and these 
are the only persons specified as having been her lovers. Mr. Mure, however, who examines 
the evidence with the metaphysical acuteness characteristic of his nation, decides the case 
against the accused. Professor Volger believes the story of her love affair with Phaon, and 
the Leucadian leap, though he admits she must have been at least forty years old. As to 
the improbability of her being so desperately enamored, at that sober and respectable age, 
with young Phaon, who seems to have been troubled with what old Mr. Weller calls "in- 
adwertent captiwation," the learned Professor says, " We are not without examples of 
elderly ladies in love with young gentlemen, and young gentlemen not iu love with elderly 
•adies." — Ed 



B. C. 600.] IHE SEVEN SAGES. 127 

fetch him. He remained at Athens till the assassination of Hipparchus 
(b. c. 514), when he is supposed to have returned to Teos. The univer- 
sal tradition of antiquity represents Anacreon as a consummate volup- 
tuary ; and his poems prove the truth of the tradition. He sings of love 
and wine with hearty good-will, and we see in him the luxury of the 
Ionian inflamed by the fervor of the poet. His death was worthy of his 
life, if we may believe the account that he was choked by a grape-stone. 
Only a few genuine fragments of his poems have come down to us, for 
the odes ascribed to him are now universally admitted to be spurious. 

§ 11. Down to the end of the seventh century before Christ literary 
celebrity in Greece was exclusively confined to the poets ; but at the com- 
mencement of the following century there sprang up in different parts of 
Greece a number of men who, under the name of the Seven Sages, 
became distinguished for their practical sagacity and ■wdse sayings or 
maxims. Their names are differently given in the various popular cata- 
logues ; but those most generally admitted to the honor are Solon, Thales, 
Pittacus, Periander, Cleobolus, Chilo, and Bias. Most of these person- 
ages were actively engaged in the affairs of public life, and exercised great 
influence upon their contemporaries. They were the authors of the cele- 
brated mottoes inscribed in later days in the Delphian temple, — " Know 
thyself," — " Nothing too much," — " Know thy opportunity," — " Surety- 
ship is the precursor of ruin." 

Of Solon, the legislator of Athens, and of Periander, the despot of 
Corinth, we have already spoken at length ; and Thales will presently 
claim our notice as the founder of Grecian philosophy. 

Pittacus has been mentioned in connection with the Ufe of Alcaeus, as 
the wise and virtuous ruler of Mytilene, who resigned the sovereign power 
which his fellow-citizens had voluntarily conferred upon him, after establish- 
ing political order in the state. The maxims attributed to him illustrate the 
amiable features of his character. He pronounced " the greatest blessing 
which a man can enjoy to be the power of doing good " ; that " the most 
sagacious man, was he who foresaw the approach of misfortune " ; " the 
bravest man, he who knew how to bear it " ; that " victory should never 
be stained by blood " ; and that " pardon was often a more effectual check 
on crime than punishment." 

Cleobulus was despot of Lindus, in the island of Rhodes, and is only 
known by his pithy sayings. He taught that " a man should never leave 
his dwelling without considering well what he was about to do, or re-enter 
it without reflecting on what he had done " ; and that " it was folly in a 
husband either to fondle or reprove his wife in company." 

'Chilo, of Sparta, had filled the office of Ephor in his native city, and 
his daughter was married to the Spartan king, Demaratus. When asked 
what were the three most difficult things in a man's life, he replied : " To 
keep a secret, to forgive injuries, and to make a profitable use of leisure 
time." 



128 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XIIL 

Bias, of Priene in Ionia, appears to have been the latest of the Seven 
Sages, since he was alive at the Persian conquest of the Ionian cities* 
The following are specimens of his maxims : he declared " the most unfor- 
tunate of all men to be the man who knows not hoM to bear misfortune '' ; 
that " a man should be slow in making up his mind, but swift in executing 
his decisions " ; that " a man should temper his love for his friends by the 
reflection that they might some day become his enemies, and moderate his 
hatred of his enemies by the reflection that they might some day become 
his friends." When overtaken by a storm on a voyage with a dissolute 
crew, and hearing them offer up prayers for their safety, he advised them 
rather " to be silent, lest the gods should discover that they were at sea." 

§ 12. The history of Greek philosophy begins with Thales of Miletus, 
who was born about b. c. 640, and died in 550, at the age of 90. He was 
the founder of the Ionic school of philosophy, and to him were traced the 
first beginnings of geometry and astronomy. The main doctrine of his 
philosophical system was, that water, or fluid substance, was the single 
original element from which everything came, and into which everything 
returned. 

Anaximander, the successor of Thales in the Ionic school, lived from 
B. c. 610 to 547. He was distinguished for his knowledge of astronomy 
and geography, and is said to have been the first to introduce the use of 
the sun-dial into Greece. He was also one of the eax'liest Greek writers in 
prose, in which he composed a geographical treatise. He is further said 
to have constructed a chart or map to accompany this work ; and to this 
account we may give the more credence, since in the century after his 
death, at the time of the Ionic revolt, the Ionian Aristagoras showed to the 
Spartan Cleomenes " a tablet of copper, upon which was inscribed every 
known part of the habitable world, the seas, and the rivers." 

Anaximenes, the third in the series of the Ionian philosophers, lived a 
little later than Anaximander. He endeavored, like Thales, to derive the 
origin of all material things from a single element ; and, according to his 
theory, air was the source of life. In like manner, Heracleitus of Ephesus, 
who flourished about b. c. 513, regarded fire or heat as the primary form 
of all matter ; and theories of a similar nature were held by other philoso- 
phers of this school. 

A new path was struck out by Anaxagoras of Clazomense, the most 
illustrious of the Ionic philosophers. Anaxagoras was born in b. c. 499, 
and consequently his life, strictly speaking, belongs to the next period of 
Grecian history ; but we mention him here in order to complete our account 
of the Ionic school. He came to Athens in 480 b. c, being then only in 
his twentieth year. Though he inherited a considerable property from his 
father, he resigned it all to his relatives, in order to devote himself entirely 
to philosophy. He continued to teach at Athens for thirty years, and 
numbered among his hearers Pericles, Socrates, and Euripides. He 
abandoned the system of his predecessors, and, instead of regarding some 



B. C. 600.] SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY. 129 

elementary form of matter as the origin of all things, he conceived a 
supreme mind or intelligence,* distinct from the visible world, to have im- 
parted form and order to the chaos of nature. These innovations afforded 
the Athenians a pretext for indicting Anaxagoras of impiety, though it is 
probable that his connection with Pericles was the real cause of that pro- 
ceeding. It was only through the mfluence and eloquence of Pericles that 
he was not put to death ; but he was sentenced to pay a fine of five talents 
and quit Athens. The philosopher retu-ed to Lampsacus, where he died 
at the age of seventy-two. 

§ 13. The second school of Greek philosophy was the Eleatic, which 
derived its name from Elea or Velia, a Greek colony on the western coast 
of Southern Italy. It was founded by Xenophanes of Colophon, who fled 
to Elea on the conquest of his native land by the Persians. He conceived 
the whole of nature to be God, and did not hesitate to denounce as abom- 
inable the Homeric descriptions of the gods. His philosophical system 
was developed in the succeeding century by his successors, Parmenides 
and Zeno, who exercised great influence upon Greek speculation by the 
acuteness of their dialectics. 

§ 14. The third school of philosophy was founded by Pythagoras. The 
history of this celebrated man has been obscured by the legends of later 
writers ; but there are a few important facts respecting him which are 
sufficently well ascertained. He was a native of Samos, and was bom 
about B. c. 580. His father was an opulent merchant, and Pythagoras 
himself travelled extensively in the East. His travels were greatly mag- 
nified by the credulity of a later age, but there can be no reasonable doubt 
that he visited Egypt, and perhaps also Phoenicia and Babylon. He is 
said to have received instruction from Thales, Anaximander, and other of 
the early Greek philosophers. Of his own philosophical views our knowl- 
edge is very limited ; since he left nothing behind him in writing, and the 
later doctrines of the Pythagoreans were naturally attributed to the founder 
of the school. It is certain, however, that he believed in the transmigra- 
tion of souls ; and his contemporary Xenophanes related that Pythagoras, 
seeing a dog beaten, interceded in its behalf, saying, " It is the soul of 
a friend of mine, whom I recognize by its voice." Later writers added 
that Pythagoras asserted that his own soul had formerly dwelt in the body 
of the Trojan Euphorbus, the son of Panthoiis, who was slain by Menelaiis, 
and that in proof of his assertion he took down, at first sight, the shield of 
Euphorbus fi-om the temple of Hera (Juno) at Argos, where it had been 
dedicated by Menelaiis.f Pythagoras was distinguished by his knowledge 



* NoCy. 



t " habentque 
Tartara Panthoiden, iterum Oreo 
Dernissum, quamvis clipeo Trqjana refixo 

Tempora testatus, nihil ultra 
Nervos atque cutem morti concesserat atrae." — Hoe. Carm. i. 28. 10. 
17 



130 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIII. 

of geometry and arithmetic ; and it was probably from his teaching that 
the Pythagoreans were led to regard numbers in some mysterious manner 
as the basis and essence of all things. "We shall, however, form an erro- 
neous opinion of the character of Pythagoras, if we regard him simply as 
a philosopher, attaching to the word the same meaning which it bore 
among the Athenians of a later age. He was in fact more of the religious 
teacher than of the philosopher ; and he looked upon himself as being des- 
tined by the gods to reveal to his disciples a new and purer mode of life. 
The religious element in his character made a profound impression upon 
his contemporaries, and they believed him to stand in a close connection 
with the gods. 

Pythagoras is said to have returned to Samos about the age of forty, 
with a mind deeply impressed with his divine mission. Finding the con- 
dition of his native country, which was then under the despotism of Poly- 
crates, unfavorable to the dissemination of his doctrines, he migrated to 
Croton in Italy. Here he met with the most wonderful success. His 
pubUc exhortations induced numbers to enroll themselves as members of 
the new society which he sought to establish. This society was a kind of 
rehgious brotherhood, the members of which were bound together by pecu- 
liar rites and observances. There were various gradations among the 
iivembers, and no candidates were admitted without passing through a 
pririod of probation, in which their intellectual faculties and general char- 
acter were tested. Everything done and taught in the fraternity was kept 
a profound secret from all without its pale. It appears that the members 
had some private signs, like Freemasons, by which they could recognize 
each other, even if they had never met before. From the secrecy in which 
their proceedings were enveloped, we do not know the nature of their re- 
ligious rites, nor the pecuhar diet to which they are said to have been sub- 
jected. Some writers represent Pythagoras as forbidding all animal food ; 
but all the members could not have been subjected to this prohibition, 
since we know that the celebrated athlete Milo was a Pythagorean, and it 
would not have been possible for him to have dispensed with animal food. 
But temperance was strictly enjoined ; and their whole training tended to 
produce great self-possession and mastery over the passions. Most of the 
converts of Pythagoras belonged to the noble and wealthy classes. Three 
hundred of them, most attached to their teacher, formed the nucleus of the 
society, and were closely united to Pythagoras and each other by a sacred 
vow. His doctrines spread rapidly over Magna Graecia, and clubs of a 
similar character were established at Sybaris, Metapontum, Tarentum, and 
other cities. 

It does not appear that Pythagoras had originally any political designs 
ja ihe foundation of the brotherhood ; but it was only natural that a club 
lik tt that of the Three Hundred at Croton should speedily acquire great 
Jniluence in the conduct of public affairs, which it uniformly exerted ia 



B. C. 530.] PYTHAGORAS. 131 

favor of the oligarcliical party. Pythagoras himself also obtained great 
political power. He did not, it is true, hold any public office, either at 
Croton or elsewhere ; but he was the general of a powerful and weU- 
discipUned order, which appears to have paid implicit obedience to his 
commands, and which bore in many respects a striking resemblance to the 
one founded in modern times by Ignatius Loyola. The influence, how- 
ever, exercised by the brotherhood upon public affairs proved its ruin. 
The support which it lent to the oligarchical party in the various cities, 
the secrecy of its proceedings, and the exclusiveness of its spirit, produced 
against the whole system a wide-spread feeling of hatred. 

The conquest of Sybaris by Croton (b. c. 510), of which an account has 
been already given, seems to have elated the Pythagoreans beyond meas- 
ure. The war had been undertaken through the advice of Pythagoras 
himself; and the forces of Croton had been commanded by Milo, a mem- 
ber of the brotherhood. Accordingly, on the termination of the war, the 
Pythagoreans opposed more actively than ever the attempts of the popu- 
lar party to obtain a share in the government of Croton, and refused to 
divide among the people the territory of the conquered city. A revolu- 
tion was the consequence. A democratical form of government was estab- 
lished at Croton ; and the people now took revenge upon their powerful 
opponents. In an outbreak of popular fury an attack was made upon the 
house in which the leading Pythagoreans were assembled ; the house was 
set on fire ; and many of the members perished. Similar riots took place 
in the other cities of Magna Graecia, in which Pythagorean clubs had been 
formed; and civil dissensions ensued, which, after lasting many years, 
were at length pacified by the friendly mediation of the Achaeans of the 
mother country. The Pythagorean order, as an active and organized 
brotherhood, was thus suppressed ; but the Pythagoreans continued to ex- 
ist as a philosophical sect, and after some interval were again admitted 
into the cities from which they had been expelled. There were different 
accounts of the fate of Pythagoras himself; but he is generally stated 
to have died at Metapontum, where his tomb was shown in the time of 
Cicero. 



132 



HISTOKT OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XIV 




Temple at ^gma, restored. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



HISTORY OP ART. 

1 1. Perfection of Grecian Art. § 2. Origin of Architecture. § 3. Cyclopean Walls. Treaa 
ury of Atreus. § 4. Architecture of Temples. § 5. Three Orders of Architecture, the 
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. § 6. Temples of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, of Hera 
(Juno) at Samos, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Jove at Athens. Eemains of Temples at 
Posidonia (Pgestum), Selinus, and ^Egina. § 7. Origin of Sculpture. Wooden Images of 
the Gods. Sculptured Figures on Architectural Monuments. Lions over the Gate at 
Mycenas. § 8. Improvements in Sculpture in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries b. c. 
§ 9. Extant Specimens of Grecian Sculpture. The Selinuntine, JEginetan, and Lycian 
Marbles. § 10. History of Painting. 



§ 1. The perfection of Greek art is still more wonderful than the per- 
fection of Greek literature. In poetry, history, and oratory, other lan- 
guages have produced works which may stand comparison with the master- 
pieces of Greek literature ; hut in architecture and sculpture the pre- 
eminence of the Hellenic race is acknowledged by the whole civilized world, 
and the most successful artist of modern times only hopes to approach, and 
dreams not of surpassing, the glorious creations of Grecian art. The art 
of a people is not only a most interesting branch of its antiquities, but also 
an important part of its history. It forms one of the most durable eviden- 
ces of a nation's growth in civilization and social progress. The remains 
of the Parthenon alone would have borne the most unerring testimony to 
the intellectual and social greatness of Athens, if the history of Greece 
had been a blank, and the names of Pericles and Pheidias unknown. 



Chap. XIV.] akchixectuke. 133 

§ 2. Architecture first claims our attention in tracing the history of 
Grecian art, since it attained a high degree of excellence at a much earUer 
period than either sculpture or painting. Architecture has its origin in 
nature and in religion. The necessity of a habitation for man, and the 
attempt to erect habitations suitable for the gods, are the two causes from 
which the art derives its existence. In Greece, however, as in most other 
countries, ai'chitecture was chiefly indebted to rehgion for its development; 
and hence its history, as a fine art, is closely connected with that of the 
temple. But before speaking of the Grecian temples, it is necessary to 
say a few words respecting the earlier buildings of the Greeks. 

§ 3. The oldest works erected by Grecian hands are those gigantic 
waUs which are stUl found at Tiryns and Mycenae, and other cities of 
Greece. They consist of enormous blocks of stone put together without 
cement of any kind, though they differ from one another in the mode of 
their construction. Li the most ancient specimens, the stones are of ii'reg- 
ular polygonal shapes, and no attempt is made to fit them into one an- 
other, the gaps being filled up with smaller stones : of this we have an 
example in the walls of the citadel of Tiryns. 




Wall at Tiryns. 

Itt other eases the stones, though they are still of irregular polygonal 
shapes, are skilfully hewn and fitted to one another, and their faces are 
cut so as to give the whole wall a smooth appearance. A specimen of this 
kind is seen in the walls of Larissa, the citadel of Argos. In the third 
species the stones are more or less regular, and are laid in horizontal cour- 
ses. The walls of Mycenas present one of the best examples of this struc- 




Wall of the Citadel of Argos. 



134 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XIV 



ture. (See drawing on p. 24.) These gigantic walls are generally known 
by the name of Cyclopean, because posterity could not believe them to be 
the works of man. Modern writers assign them to the Pelasgians ; but 
we know nothing of their origin, though we may safely believe them to 
belong to the earliest periods of Greek history. In the Homeric poems 
we find the cities of Greece surrounded with massive walls ; and the poet 
speaks of the chief cities of the Argive kingdom as " the waUed Tiryns," 
and " Mycenae, the well-built city." 

The only other remains which can be regarded as contemporary with 
these massive walls are those subterraneous, dome-shaped edifices usually 
supposed to have been the treasuries of the Heroic kings. This, however, 
seems doubtful, and many modern writers maintain them to have been the 
family vaults of the ancient heroes by whom they were erected. The best 
preserved monument of this kind is the one at Mycenas, where we find so 
many remains of the earliest Grecian art. This building, generally called 
the Treasury of Atreus, is entirely under ground. It contains two cham- 
bers, the one upon entrance being a large vault about fifty feet in width 
and forty in height, giving access to a small chamber excavated in the 
solid rock. The building is constructed of horizontal courses of masonry, 
which gradually approach and unite in the top in a closing stone. Its 
principle is that of a wall resisting a superincumbent weight, and deriving 
strength and coherence from the weight itself, which is in reality the prin- 
ciple of the arch. The doorway of the monument was formerly adorned 
with pilasters and other ornaments in marble of different colors. It ap- 
pears to have been lined in the interior with bronze plates, the holes for 
the nails of which are still visible in horizontal rows. 

§ 4. The temples of the gods were originally small in size and saean in i 
appearance. The most ancient were nothing but hollow trees, in which v 
the images of the gods were placed, since the temple in early times was 
simply the habitation of the deity, and not a place for the worshippers. 
As the nation grew in knowledge and in civilization, the desire naturally 
arose of improving and embellishing the habitations of their deities. The 
tree was first exchanged for a wooden house. The form of the temple 
was undoubtedly borrowed from the common dwellings of men. Among 
the Greeks of Asia Minor, we stUl find an exact conformity of style and 




Jhap. XIV.] 



TEMPLES. 



133 



arrangement between the wooden Imts now occupied by the peasantry 
and the splendid temples of antiquity. The wooden habitation of the 
god gave way in turn to a temple of stone. In the erection of these 
sacred edifices, architecture made great and rapid progress; and even 
as early as the sixth century there were many magnificent temples 
erected in various parts of Hellas. Most of the larger temples received 
their light from an opening in the centre of the building, and were 
for this reason called hypcethral* or under the sky. They usually 
consisted of three parts : the pronaos,'\ or vestibule ; the nam, X or cella, 
which contained the statue of the deity ; and the opisthodomos, § or 
back-building, in which the treasures of the temple were frequently 
kept. The form of the temples was very simple, being either oblong 
or round; and their grandeur was owing to the beautiful combination 
of columns which adorned the interior as well as the outside. These 
columns either surrounded the building entirely, or were arranged in 
porticos on one or more of its fronts ; and according to their number 
and distribution temples have been classified both by ancient and modem 
writers on architecture. Columns were originally used simply to sup- 
port the roof of the building ; and, amidst all the elaborations of a later 
age, this object was always kept in view. Hence we find the column 
supportiag a horizontal mass, technically called the entablature. Both the 




Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Columns. 
column and the entablature are again divided into three distinct parts. 
The former consists of the base, the shaft, and the capital ; the latter, of the 
architrave, the frieze, and the cornice. The architrave is the chief beam, || 
resting on the summit of the row of columns ; the frieze rises above the 
architrave, and is frequently adorned by figures in relief, whence its Greek 

* vnaidpos- t vpovaos- % vaosi also called <Tr]K6s- S omardobfios- 

y Called by the Greeks 'ETTiorvXtov, epistylium. 



186 



HISTOBT OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XIV. 



name ; * and above the frieze projects the comice,t forming a handsome 
finish to the entablature. According to certain differences in the pro- 
portions and embelUshments of the columns and entablature, Grecian 
architecture was divided into three orders, called respectively the Doric, 
Ionic, and Corinthian. 

§ 5. The Doric order is the most ancient, and is marked by the charac- 
teristics of the people from whom it derives its name. It is simple, 
massive, and majestic. The column is characterized by the absence of a 
base, by the thickness and rapid diminution of the shaft, and by the sim- 
plicity and massiveness of the capital. In the entablature, the architrave 
is in one surface, and quite plain. The frieze is ornamented by triglyphs, 
so called from the three flat bands into which they are divided by the 
intervening channels; while the metopes, or the vacant spaces between 
the triglyphs, are also adorned with sculptures in high relief. The 
cornice projects far, and on its mider side are cut several sets of drops, 
called mutules. 




Doric Architecture. Ionic Arcliitecture. 

From Temple at Phigalia. From the Erechtheum. 

The Ionic order is distinguished by simple gracefulness, and by a much 
richer style of ornament than the Doric. The shaft of the column is 
much more slender, and rests upon a base ; while the capital is adorned 
by spiral volutes. The architrave is in three faces, the one slightly pro» 
jecting beyond the other ; there is a small cornice between the architrave 



* Za>(f)6pos, zcfphorus- 



f Kopavis, coronis 



Chap. XIV.] 



TEMPLES. 



13« 



and the frieze, and all three members of the entablature are more or less 
ornamented with mouldings. 

The Corinthian order is only a later form of the Ionic, and belongs to a. 
period subsequent to the one treated in the present book. It is especially 
characterized by its beautiful capital, which is said to have been suggested 
to the mind of the celebrated sculptor Callimachus by the siglit of a 
basket, covered by a tile, and overgrown by the leaves of an acanthus, on 
which it had accidentally been placed. The earliest known example of 
its use throughout a building is in the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, 
formerly called the Lantern of Demosthenes, which was built in b. c. 335. 




Corinthian Architecture. From the Monument of Lysicrates.* 

§ 6. Passing over the earher Greek temples, we find at the beginning 
of the sixth century b. c. several magnificent buildings of this kinl men- 
tioned by the ancient writers. Of these two of the most celebrated were 
the temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, and the temple of Hera (Juno) 
at Samos. The former was erected on a gigantic scale, and from its size 
and magnificence was regarded as one of the wonders of the world. I 



* In the Street of Tripods (686? TpiiroSav) at Athens.— Ed. 
18 



138 HISTORY OF GREECE. f Chap. XIV. 

was commenced about B. c. 600, under the superintendence of the archi- 
tects Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, of Cnossos in Crete, but it occu- 
pied many years in building. The material employed was white marble, 
and the order of architecture adopted was the Ionic. Its length was four 
hundred and twenty -five feet, its breadth two hundred and twenty feet ; 
the columns were sixty feet in height, and one hundi*ed and twenty-seven 
in number ; and the blocks of marble composing the architrave were 
thirty feet in length. This wonder of the world was burnt down by 
Herostratus, in order to immortalize himself, on the same night that Alex- 
ander the Great was born (b. c. 356) ; but it was afterwards rebuilt with 
still greater magnificence by the contributions of all the states of Asia 
Minor. 

The temple of Hera (Juno) at Samos was begun about the same time 
as the one at Ephesus ; but it appears to have been finished much earlier, 
since it was the largest temple with which Herodotus was acquainted. 
It was three hundred and forty-six feet in length, and one hundred and 
eighty-nine in breadth, and was originally built in the Doric style, but the 
existing remains belong to the Ionic order. The architects were Rhoecus 
and his son Theodorus, both natives of Samos. 

In the latter half of the same century the temple of Delphi was rebuilt 
after its destruction by fire in b. c. 548. The sum required for the erec- 
tion of this temple was three hundred talents, or about £ 75,000,* which 
had to be collected from the various cities in the Hellenic world. The 
contract for the building was taken by the Alcmseonidse, and the magnifi- 
cent manner in which they executed the work has been already men- 
tioned. It was in the Doric style, and the front was cased with Parian 
marble. 

About the same time Peisistratus and his sons commenced the temple 
of the Olympian Zeus at Athens. It was a colossal fabric in the Corin- 
thian style, three hundred and fifty-nine feet in length by one hundred and 
seventy-tln-ee in breadth, and was only completed by the Emperor Hadri- 
an, six hundred and fifty years after its foundation. 

The temples mentioned above have entirely disappeared, with the ex- 
ception of a few columns ; but others erected in the sixth and fifth centu- 
ries B. c. have withstood more successfully the ravages of time. Of these 
the most perfect and the most striking are the two temples at Posidonia, 
or Piestum, the colony of Sybaris in Southern Italy, the remains of which 
still fill the beholder with admiration and astonishment. The larger of 
the two, which is the more ancient, is characterized by the massive sim- 
plicity of the ancient Doric style. It is one hundred and ninety-five feet 
long by seventy-five feet wide. There are likewise considerable remains 
of three ancient temples at Selinus in Sicily, built in the Doric style. The 

* Equal to about $350,000, in round numbers. — Ed. 



Chap. XIV.] STATUARY. 139 

temple of Zeus Panhellenius, in the island of ^gina, of which many columns 
are still standing, was probably erected in the sixth century b. c, and not 
after the Persian wars, as is stated by many modern writers. It stands in 
a sequestred and lonely spot in the northeast corner of the island, over- 
looking the sea and commanding a view of the opposite coast of Attica. 
It is in the Doric style ; and the front elevation, as restored, is exhibited 
in the engraving at the head of this chapter. 

§ 7. Sculpture, or, to use a more correct expression, Statuary, owed its 
origin, like architecture, to religion. The only statues in Greece were for 
a long time those of the gods ; and it was not till about B. c. 550 that stat- 
ues began to be erected in honor of men. The most ancient representa- 
tions of the gods did not even pretend to be images, but were only sym- 
bolical signs of their presence, and were often nothing more than unhewn 
blocks of stone or simple pieces of wood. Sometimes there was a real 
statue of the god, carved in wood, of which material the most ancient 
statues were exclusively made.* The art of carving in wood was confined 
to certain famiUes, and was handed down from father to son. Such 
families are represented in Attica by the mythical name of Dasdalus, and 
in ^gina by the equally mythical name of Smilis, from both of whom 
many artists of a later age traced their descent. The hereditary cultiva- 
tion of the art tended to repress its improvement and development ; and 
the carvers long continued to copy from generation to generation the exact 
type of each particular god. These wooden figures were frequently 
painted and clothed, and were decorated with diadems, ear-rings, and 
necklaces, and in course of time were partly covered with gold or ivory. 
Statues in marble or metal did not begin to be made till the sixth cen- 
tury B. c. 

Though statuary proper, or the construction of a round figure standing 
by itself, continued in a rude state for a long time in Greece, yet sculp- 
tured figures on architectural monuments were executed at an early period 
in a superior style of art. One of the earliest specimens of sculpture stiU 
extant is the work in relief above the ancient gate at Mycenie, represent- 
ing two lions standing on their hind legs, with a kind of pillar between 
them. They are figured on p. 24. 

§ 8. About the beginning of the sixth century B. c. a fresh impulse was 
given to statuary, as well as to the other arts, by the discovery of certain 
mechanical processes in the use and application of the metals. Glaucus 
of Chios is mentioned as the inventor of the art of soldering metal ; f and 
Rhoecus and Theodorus of Samos, who have been already spoken of as 
architects, invented the art of casting figures of bronze in a mould. The 
magnificent temples, which began to be built about the same period, called 

* A wooden statue was called ^oavov, from ^eo), " polish " or " carve." 
f (ribfipov KoWrjais, Herod. I. 25. 



140 HISTORY OP GREECE. [ChAP. XIV 

into exercise the art of the sculptor, since the friezes and pediments were 
usually adorned with figures in relief. Dipcenus and ScyUis of Crete, 
who practised their art at Sicyon about b. c. 580, were the first sculptors 
who obtained renown for their statues in marble. They founded a school 
of art in Sicyon, Avliich long enjoyed great celebrity. The other most dis- 
tinguished schools of art were at Samos, Chios, jEgina, and Argos. The 
practice of erecting statues of the victors in the great public games, which 
commenced about b. c. 550, was Ukewise of great service in the develop- 
ment of tlie art. In forming these statues the sculptor was not tied down 
by a fixed type, as in the case of the images of the gods, and consequently 
gave greater play to his inventive powers. The improvement thus pro- 
duced in the statues of men was gradually extended to the images of the 
gods ; and the artist was emboldened to depart from the ancient models, 
and to represent the gods under new forms of beauty and grandeur. 
Nevertheless, even the sculptures which belong to the close of the present 
] eriod still bear traces of the religious restraints of an earHer age, and 
form a transition from the hardness and stiffness of the archaic style to 
that ideal beauty which was shortly afterwards developed in the sublime 
works of Pheidias. 

§ 9. Among the remains of the sculpture of this period still extant, 
those most worthy of notice are the reliefs in the metopes of the temple of 
Selinus, the statues on the pediments of the temple of JEgina, and the 
reliefs on the great monument recently discovered at Xanthus in Lycia. 
The two reliefs given on p. 108 are taken from the metopes of two 
temples at Selinus. The first, belonging to the more ancient of the tem- 
ples, which was probably built about B. c. 600, represents Perseus cutting 
oflT the head of Medusa, with the assistance of Pallas. The work is very 
rude and very inferior, both in style and execution, to the lions over the 
gate at Mycenae. The second, belonging to the more recent of the tem- 
ples, probably erected in the latter half of the fifth century, exhibits a 
marked improvement. It represents Action metamorphosed into a stag 
by Artemis (Diana), and torn to pieces by his own dogs. 

Two of the statues on one of the pediments of the temple at -^gina are 
represented on pp. 15, 16. These statues wei-e discovered in 1812, and 
are at present in the collection at Munich. They have been restored by 
Thorwaldsen. The subject is Athena (Minerva), leading the JEacids or 
JEginetan heroes in the war against the Trojans. There are traces of 
color on the clothes, arms, eyeballs, and lips, but not the flesh; and it 
appears, from the many small holes found in the marble, that bronze 
armor was fixed to the statues by means of nails. There is great anima- 
tion in the figures, but their gestures are too violent and abrupt ; and one 
may still perceive evident traces of the archaic style. The close imitation 
of nature is very striking. 

The reUefs on the monument at Xanthus in Lycia were evidently exe- 



Chap. XIV.] PAINTING. 141 

cuted by Greek artists, and probably about the same time as the ^gine- 
tan statues. The monument consists of a quadrangular tower of lime- 
stone on a base, and was surrounded on four sides by marble friezes at 
the height of twenty feet from the ground. On these friezes, which are 
now in the British Museum, there are sculptures representing various 
mythological subjects ; and from the ends of the narrower sides contain 
ing four beautiful Harpies carrying off maidens, the building is frequently 
called the Harpy Monument. The general character of these sculptures 
is an antique simpHcity of style, united with grace and elegance of exe- 
cution. 

§ 10. Painting is not mentioned as an imitative art in the earliest rec- 
ords of Grecian Uterature. Homer does not speak of any kind of paint- 
ing, although he frequently describes garments inwoven with figures. 
The fine arts in all countries appear to have been indebted to religion for 
their development ; and since painting was not connected in early times 
with the worsliip of the gods, it long remained behind the sister arts of 
architecture and sculpture. For a considerable period all painting con- 
sisted in coloring statues and architectural monuments, of which we find 
traces in the ruins of the temples already described. The first improve- 
ments in pamting were made in the schools of Corinth and Sicyon ; and 
the most ancient specimens of the art which have come down to us are 
found on the oldest Corinthian vases, which may be assigned to the begin- 
ning of the sixth century b. c. About the same time painting began to 
be cultivated in Asia INIinor, along with architecture and sculpture. The 
paintings of the town of Phocsea are mentioned on the capture of that city 
by Harpagus in B. c. 544 ; and a few years afterwards (b. c. 508) Man- 
drocles, who constructed for Darius the bridge of boats across the Bosporus, 
had a picture painted representing the passage of the army and the king 
liimself seated on the throne reviewing the troops as they passed. The 
only great painter, however, of this period, whose name has been preserved, 
is Cimon of Cleonee, whose date is uncertain, but who probably must not 
be placed later than the time of Peisistratus and his sons (b. c. 560-510). 
He introduced great improvements into the art, and thus prepared the 
way for the perfection in which it appears at the beginning of the follow- 
ing period. His works probably held the same place in the history of 
painting which the JEginetan marbles occupy in the history of sculpture, 
forming a transition from the archaic stifihess of the old school to the 
ideal beauty of the paintings of Polygnotus of Thasos. 




Cyms, from a bas-relief at Pasargadas. 

BOOK III. 

THE PERSIAN WARS, 

B. C, 500-478. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

§1. Introduction. § 2. The Assyrian Empire. § 3. The Median Empire. §4. The Baby 
Ionian Empire. § 5. The Lydian Monarchy, and its Influence upon the Asiatic Greeks. 
§ 6. Conquest of the Asiatic Greelis by Croesus, King of Lydia. § 7. Foundation of the 
Persian Empire by Cyrus, and Overthrow of the Median Empire by the latter. § 8. Con- 
quest of tlie Lydian Monarchy by Cyrus. ^ 9. Conquest of the Asiatic Greeks by 
Harpagus, the General of Cyrus. Death of Cyrus. ^ 10. Reigns of Cambyses and of 
the false Smerdis. § 11. History of Polycrates, Despot of Samos, § 12. Accession of 
Darius, Son of Hystaspes. His Organization of the Persian Empire. \ 13. Invasion of 
Scythia by Darius. § 14. Subjection of Thrace and Macedonia to the Persian Empire. 

§ 1. The period upon which we are now entering is the most brilliant 
in the history of Greece. The subject has hitherto been confined to the 
history of separate and isolated cities, which were but little affected by 



Chap. XV.] THE ASSYRIAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES. 143 

each other's prosperity or adversity. But the Persian invasion produced 
an important change in the relations of the Greek cities. A common 
danger drew them closer together and compelled them to act in concert. 
Thus Grecian history obtains a degree of unity, and consequently of 
interest. The rise and progress of the Persian empire, which produced 
such important results upon the Grecian states, therefore claim our atten- 
tion ; but in order to understand the subject aright, it is necessary to go a 
little further back, and to glance at the history of those monarchies wliich 
were overthrown by the Persians. 

§ 2. From the first dawn of history to the present day, the East has 
been the seat of vast and mighty empires. Of these the earliest and the 
most extensive was founded by the Assyrian kings, who resided at the 
city of Nineveh on the Tigris. At the time of its greatest prosperity this 
empire appears to have extended over the South of Asia, from the Indus 
on the east to the Mediterranean Sea on the west. Of its history we have 
hardly any particulars ; but its greatness is attested by the unanimous 
voice of sacred and profane writers ; and the wonderful discoveries which 
have been made within the last few years in the earthen mounds which 
entomb the ancient Nineveh aiford unerring testimony of the progress 
which the Assyrians had made in architecture, sculpture, and the arts of 
civilized life. At the beginning of the eighth century before the Christian 
era, the power of this vast empire was broken by the revolt of the Medes 
and Babylonians, who had hitherto been its subjects. The city of Nineveh 
still continued to exist as the seat of an independent kingdom, but the 
greater part of its dominions was divided between the Medes and Baby- 
lonians. 

§ 3. The Medes belonged to that branch of the Indo-Germanic family 
inhabiting the vast space of country known by the general name of Iran or 
Aria, which extends south of the Caspian and the Oxus, from the Indus 
on the east to Mount Zagros on the west, — a range of mountains running 
parallel to the Tigris and eastward of that river. The northwestern part 
of this country was occupied by the Medes, and their capital, Ecbatana, 
was situated in a mountainous and healthy district, which was celebrated 
for the freshness and coolness of its climate in the summer heats. Their 
language was a dialect of the Zend ; and their religion was the one which 
had been founded by Zoroaster. They worshipped fire as the symbol of 
the Deity, and their priests were the Magi, who formed a distinct class or 
caste, possessing great influence and power in the state. The people were 
brave and warlike, and under their successive monarchs they gradually 
extended their dominion from the Indus on the east to the river Halys in 
the centre of Asia Minor on the west. Their most celebrated conquest 
was the capture of Nineveh, which they razed to the ground ins. C. 606.* 

♦ According to Herodotus, there were four Median kings: — 1. Deioces, the founder oi 



144 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. X"V 

§ 4. The Babylonians were a Semitic people. Their territory com- 
prised the fertile district between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and their 
capital, Babylon, situated on the latter river, was one of the greatest cities 
in the ancient world. Herodotus, who visited it in its decline, describes 
its size and grandeur in terms which would exceed belief, if the truthful- 
ness of the historian was not above all suspicion. It was built in the form 
of a square, of which each side was fifteen miles in length, and it was 
surrounded by walls of prodigious size, three hundred feet high and 
seventy-five feet thick. Under Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian empire 
reached its height. This monarch extended his dominions as far as the 
confines of Egypt. He took Jerusalem, and carried away its inhabitants 
into captivity, and he annexed to his dominions both Judaea and Phoenicia. 
On his death, in B. c. 562, he bequeathed to his son Labynetus (the Bel- 
shazzar of Scripture) a kingdom which extended from the Tigris to the 
frontiers of Egypt and the South of Phoenicia. 

§ 5. The Median and Babylonian empires did not include any countries 
inhabited by the Greeks, and exercised only a remote influence upon 
Grecian civilization. There was, however, a third power, which rose 
upon the ruins of the Assyrian empire, with which the Greeks were 
brought into immediate contact. This was the Lydian monarchy, whose 
territory was originally confined to the fertile district eastward of Ionia, 
watered by the Cayster and the Hermus. The capital of the monarchy 
was Sardis, which was situated on a precipitous rock belonging to the 
ridge of Mount Tmolus. Here three dynasties of Lydian kings are said to 
have reigned. Of the first two we have no account, and it is probable that, 
down to the commencement of the third of these dynasties, Lydia formed 
a province of the Assyrian empire. However this may be, the history of 
Lydia begins only with the accession of Gyges, the founder of the third 
dynasty ; and it cannot be a mere accident that the beginning of his 
reign is nearly coincident with the decline of the Assyrian empire and 
the foundation of the independent monarchies of the Babylonians and 
Medes.* 

Under Gyges and his successors Sardis became the centre of a power- 
ful and civilized monarchy ; and the existence of such a state in close 
proximity to the Greek cities in Ionia exercised an important influence 
upon the latter. The Lydians were a wealthy and industrious people, 
carrying on an extensive commerce, practising manufactures and ac- 
quainted with various arts. The Lydians are said to have been the first 
people to coin money of gold and silver ; and of the former metal they 

the empire, who reigned B.C. 710-657; 2. Phraortes, b. c. 657-635; 3. Cyaxares, b. c 
635-595; 4. Astyages, b. c. 595-559. 

* According to Herodotus, there were five Lydian kings : — 1. Gyges, who reigned b. o 
716-678; 2. Ardys, b. c. 678-629; 3. Sadyattes, B.C. 629-617; 4. Alyattes, b. c. 617 - 
860; 5. Croesus, b. c. 560-546. 



B, C. 560.J THE LTD IAN MONARCHY. 145 

obtained large quantities in the sands of the river Pactolus, which flowed 
down from Mount Tmolus towards the Hermus. From them the Ionic 
Greeks derived various improvements in the useful and the ornamental 
arts, especially in the weaving and the dyeing of fine fabrics, in the pro- 
cesses of metallurgy, and in the style of their music. The growth of the 
Lydian monarchy in wealth and civihzation was attended with another 
advantage to the Grecian cities on the coast. As the territory of the 
Lydians did not originally extend to the sea, the whole of their commerce 
with the Mediterranean passed through the Grecian cities, and was carried 
on in Grecian ships. This contributed greatly to the prosperity and 
wealth of JMiletus, Phocsea, and the other Ionian cities. 

§ 6. But while the Asiatic Greeks were indebted for so much of their 
grandeur and opulence to the Lydian monarchy, the increasing power of 
the latter eventually deprived them of their poHtical independence. Even 
Gyges had endeavored to reduce them to subjection, and the attempt was 
renewed at various times by his successors ; but it was not until the reign 
of Croesus, the last king of Lydia, who succeeded to the throne in b. c. 
560, that the Asiatic Greeks became the subjects of a barbarian power. 
This monarch succeeded in the enterprise in which his predecessors had 
failed. He began by attacking Ephesus, and reduced in succession all 
the other Grecian cities on the coast. His rule, however, was not oppres- 
sive ; he appears to have been content with the payment of a moderate 
tribute, and to have permitted the cities to regulate their own affairs. He 
next turned his arms towards the east, and subdued all the nations in 
Asia Minor west of the river Halys, with the exception of the Lycians 
and Cihcians. The fame of Croesus and of his countless treasures now 
resounded through Greece. He spoke the Greek language, welcomed 
Greek guests, and reverenced the Greek oracles, which he enriched with 
the most munificent offerings. The wise men of Greece were attracted 
to Sardis by the fame of his power and of his wealth. Among his other 
visitors he is said to have entertained Solon ; but the celebrated story of 
the interview between the Athenian sage and the Lydian monarch, which 
the stern laws of chronology compel us to reject, has ah'eady been nar- 
rated in a previous part of this work.* 

Croesus deemed himself secure from the reach of calamities, and his 
kingdom appeared to be placed upon a firm and lasting foundation. His 
own subjects were submissive and obedient ; and he was closely connected 
with the powerful monarchs of Media, Babylon, and Egypt. Astyages, the 
king of Media, whose territories adjoined his own, was his brotlier-in-law ; 
and he had formed an alliance and friendship with Labynetus, king of 
Babylon, and Amasis, king of Egypt. The four kings seemed to have 
nothing to fear, either from internal commotions or external foes. Yet 

* Page 95. 
19 



146 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XV. 

within the space of a few years their dynasties were overthrown, and their 
territories absorbed in a vast empire, founded by an adventurer till then 
unknown by name. 

§ 7. The rise and fall of the great Asiatic monarchies have been char- 
acterized by the same features in ancient and modem times. A brave 
and hardy race, led by its native chief, issues either from the mountains 
or from the steppes of Asia, overruns the more fertUe and cultivated parts 
of the continent, conquers the effeminate subjects of the existing monar- 
chies, and places its leader upon the throne of Asia. But the descendants 
of the new monarch and of the conquering race give way to sensuality and 
sloth, and fall victims in their turn to the same bravery in another people, 
"which had given the sovereignty to their ancestors. The history of Cyrus, 
the great founder of the Persian empire, is an illustration of these remarks. 
It is true that the earlier portion of his Ufe is buried under a heap of 
fables, and that it is impossible to determine whether he was the grandson 
of the Median king, Astyages, as is commonly stated; but it does not 
admit of doubt, that he led the warlike Persians from their mountainous 
homes to a series of conquests, which secured him an empire extending 
from the JEgean to the Indus, and from the Caspian and the Oxus to the 
, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. 

The Persians were of the same race as the Medes, spoke a dialect of 
the same language, and were adlierents of the same religion. They 
inhabited the mountainous region south of Media, which abounds in 
several well-watered valleys, and slopes gradually down to the low grounds 
on the coast of the Persian Gulf. While the Medes became enervated by 
the corrupting influences to which they were exposed, the Persians pre- 
served in their native mountains their simple and wai'like habits. They 
were divided into several tribes, partly agricultural and partly nomadic ; 
; but they were aU brave, rude, and hardy, clothed in skins, drinking only 
water, and ignorant of the commonest luxuries of life. Cyrus led these 
fierce warriors from their mountain fastnesses, defeated the Medes in 
battle, took Astyages prisoner, and deprived him of the throne. The 
other nations included in the Median empire submitted to the conqueror ; 
and the sovereignty of Upper Asia thus passed from the Medes to the 
Persians. The accession of Cyrus to the empire is placed in b. c. 559. 

§ 8. This important revolution excited ahke the anger, the fears, and the 
hopes of Crcesus. Anxious to avenge his brother-in-law, to arrest the 
alarming growth of the Persian power, and to enlarge his own dominions, 
he resolved to attack the new monarch. But before embarking upon so 
perilous an enterprise he consulted the oracles of Amphiaraus, and of 
Apollo at Delphi, in whose veracity he placed the most unbounded con- 
fidence. The reply of both oracles was, that, " if he should make war 
upon the Persians, he would destroy a mighty monarchy," and they both 
advised him to make alUes of the most powerful among the Greeks. Un- 



B. C. 546.] CYRUS. 147 

derstanding the response to refer to the Persian empire, and not, as the 
priests explained it after the event, to his own, he had no longer any hesi- 
tation in commencing the war. In obedience to the oracles he first sent 
to the Spartans to solicit their alliance, which was readily granted, but no 
troops were sent to his immediate assistance. He then crossed the Halys 
at the head of a large army, laid waste the country of the Syrians of Cap- 
padocia, and took several of their towns. Cyrus lost no time in coming to 
the help of his distant subjects. The two armies met near the Pterian 
plain in Cappadocia, where a bloody, but indecisive battle was fought. 
As the forces of Croesus were inferior in number to those of the Persian 
king, he thought it more prudent to return to Sardis, and collect a large 
army for the next campaign. Accordingly he despatched envoys to Laby- 
netus, Amasis, and the Lacedgemonians, requesting them to send auxiliaries 
to Sardis in the course of the next five months ; and meantime he dis- 
banded the mercenary troops who had followed him into Cappadocia. 

Cyrus anticipated his enemy's plan ; he waited till the Lydian king had 
re-entered his capital and dismissed his troops ; and he then marched upon 
Sardis with such celerity, that he appeared under the walls of the city 
before any one could give notice of his approach. Croesus was thus com- 
pelled to fight without his allies ; but he did not despair of success ; for 
the Lydian cavalry was distinguished for its efficiency, and the open plain 
before Sardis was favorable for its evolutions. To render this force use- 
less, Cyrus placed in front of his hne the baggage camels, which the 
Lydian horses could not endure either to see or to smell. The Lydians, 
however, did not on this account decline the contest; they dismounted 
from their horses, and fought bravely on foot ; and it was not until after a 
fierce combat that they were obliged to take refuge within the city. Here 
they considered themselves secure till their allies should come to their aid j 
for the fortifications of Sardis were deemed impregnable to assault. There 
was, however, one side of the city which had been left unfortified, because 
it stood upon a rock so lofty and precipitous, as to appear quite inacces- 
sible. But on the fourteenth day of the siege a Persian soldier, having 
seen one of the garrison descend this rock to pick up his helmet which 
had roUed down, climbed up the same way, followed by several of his 
comrades. Sardis was thus taken, and Croesus with all his treasures fell 
into the hands of Cyrus (b. c. 546). The Lydian king was condemned 
to be burnt alive; but his life was afterwards spared by the conqueror; 
and he became the confidential adviser both of Cyrus and his son 
Cambyses. 

§ 9. The fall of Croesus was followed by the subjection of the Greek 
cities in Asia to the Persian yoke. As soon as Sardis had been taken, 
the lonians and Cohans sent envoys to Cyrus, offering to submit to hxn. 
on the same terms as they had obtained from Croesus. But the Persian 
conqueror, who had in vain attempted to induce them to revolt from tha 



148 HISTOKT OF GREECE. (Chap. XV. 

Lydian king at the commencement of the -war, gternly refused their 
request, except in the case of Miletus. The other Greeks now began -to 
prepare for defence, and sent deputies to Sparta to solicit assistance. 
This was refused by the Spartans ; but they despatched some of their 
citizens to Ionia to investigate the state of affairs. One of their number, 
exceeding the bounds of their commission, repaired to Cyrus at Sardis, and 
warned him "not to injure any city in Hellas, for the Lacedamionians 
would not permit it." Astonished at such a message from a people -of 
whom he had never heard, the conqueror inquired of the 'Greeks who 
stood near him, " Who are these Lacedaemonians, and how many are they 
in number that they venture to send me such a notice ? " Having 
received an answer to his question, he said to the Spartan, "I was never 
yet afraid of men who have a place set apart in the middle of their city 
where they meet to cheat one another and forswear themselves. If I live, 
they shall have troubles of their own to talk about apart from the lonians." 
This taunt of Cyrus was levelled at Grecian habits generally ; for to 
the rude barbarian, buying and selling seemed contemptible and dis- 
graceful. 

Cyrus soon afterwards quitted Sardis to prosecute his conquests in the 
East, and left the reduction of the Greek cities, and of the other districts 
in Asia Minor, to his lieutenants. The Greek cities offered a brave, but 
ineffectual resistance, and were taken one after the other by Hai'pagus, the 
Persian generaL The inhabitants of Phocaea and Teos preferred expa- 
triation to slavery ; they abandoned their homes to the conqueror, and 
sailed away in search of new settlements. The Phocteans, after experi- 
encing many vicissitudes of fortune, at length settled in the South of 
Italy, where they founded Elea. The Teians took refuge on the coast 
of Thrace, where they built the city of Abdera. All the other Asiatic 
Greeks on the mainland were enrolled among the vassals of Cyrus ; and 
even the inhabitants of the islands of Lesbos and Chios sent in their sub- 
mission to Harpagus, although the Persians then possessed no fleet to 
force them to obedience. Samos, on the other hand, maintained its itide- 
pendence, and appears soon afterwards as one of the most powerful of the 
Grecian states. After the reduction of the Asiatic Greeks, Harpagus 
marched against the other districts of Asia Minor, which still refused to 
own the authority of Cyrus. They were all conquered without any 
serious resistance, with the exception of the Lydans, who, finding it im- 
possible to maintain their freedom, set fire to their chief town Xanthus ; 
and while the women and children perished in the flames, the men sallied 
forth against the enemy and died sword in hand. 

While Harpagus was thus employed, Cyrus was making still more 
extensive conquests in Upper Asia and Assyria. The most important of 
these was the capture of the wealthy and populous city of Babylon, which 
he took by diverting the course of the Euphrates, and then marching into 



B. C. 522.] CAMBYSES. 149 

the city by the bed of the river (b. c 538). Subsequently he marched 
against the nomad tribes in Central Asia, but was slain in battle whUe 
fighting against the Massagetae, a people dwelling beyond the Araxes. 
He perished in b. c. 529, after a reign of thirty years, leaving his vast 
empire to his son Cambyses. 

§ 10. The love of conquest and of aggrandizement, which had been fed 
by the repeated victories of Cyrus, still fired the Persians. Of the four 
great monarchies which Cyrus had found in all their glory when he de- 
scended with his shepherds from the Persian mountains, there yet re- 
mained one which had not been destroyed by his ai'ms. Amasis con- 
tiuued to occupy the throne of Egypt in peace and prosperity, while the 
monarchs of Media, Lydia, and Babylon had either lost their lives, or 
become the vassals of the Persian king. Accordingly, Cambyses resolved 
to lead his victorious Persians to the conquest of Egypt. While making 
his preparations for the invasion, Amasis died, after a long reign, and was 
succeeded by his son, Psammenitus, who inherited neither the abilities nor 
the good fortune of his father. The defeat of the Egyptians in a single 
battle, followed by the capture of Memphis with the person of Psammeni- 
tus, decided the fate of the country. Cambyses resided some time in 
Egypt, which he ruled with a rod of iron. His temper was naturally 
violent and capricious ; and the possession of unlimited power had created 
in him a state of mind bordering upon frenzy. The idolatry of the Egyp- 
tians and their adoration of animals excited the indignation of the wor- 
shipper of fire ; and he gave vent to his passions by wanton and sacrile- 
gious acts against the most cherished objects and rites of the national 
religion. Even the Persians experienced the effects of his madness ; and 
iiis brother Smerdis was put to death by his orders. Tliis act was fol- 
lowed by important consequences- Among the few ()er>'ons privy to the 
muriier was a Magian, who had a brother bearing the same name as the 
deceased prince, and strongly resembling him in person. Taking advan- 
tage of these circumstances, and of the alarm excited among the leading 
Persians by the frantic tyranny of Cambyses, he proclauned his brother 
as king, i*epresenting him as the younger son of Cyrus. Cambyses heard 
of the revolt whilst in Syria ; but as he was mounting his horse to march 
against the usurper, an accidental wound from his sword put an end to 
his life, B. c. 522. 

As the younger son of Cyrus was generally believed to be alive, the 
false Smerdis was acknowledged as king by the Persians, and reigned 
without opposition for seven months. But the leading Persian nobles had 
never been quite free from suspicion, and they at length discovered the im- 
position which had been practised upon them. Seven of them now formed 
a conspiracy to get rid of the usurper. They succeeded in forcing their 
way into the palace, and in slaying the Magian and his brother in the 
eighth month of their reign. One of their number, Darius, the son of 
Hystaspes, ascended the vacant throne, B. c. 521. 



150 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XV. 

§ 11. During the reign of Cambyses, the Greek cities of Asia remained 
obedient to their Persian governors. The subjection of the other cities 
had increased the power and influence of Samos, which, as we have 
already seen, had maintained its independence, when the neighboring 
islands of Lesbos and Chios had submitted to the lieutenant of Cyrus. At 
the beginning of the reign of Cambyses, Samos had reached, under its 
despot, Polycrates, an extraordinary degree of prosperity, and had become 
the most important naval power in the world. The ambition and good 
fortune of this enterprising despot were alike remarkable. He possessed 
a hundred ships of war, with which he conquered several of the islands, 
and even some places on the mainland ; and he aspired to nothing less 
than the dominion of Ionia, as well as of the islands in the ^gean. The 
LacediEmonians, who had invaded the island at the invitation of the Sa- 
mian exiles for the purpose of overthrowing his government, were obliged 
to retire after besieging his city in vain for forty days. Everything which 
he undertook seemed to prosper ; but his uninterrupted good fortune at 
length excited the alarm of his ally, Amasis. According to the tale re- 
lated by Herodotus, the Egyptian king, convinced that such amazing good 
fortune would sooner or later incur the envy of the gods, wrote to Poly- 
crates, advising him to throw away one of his most valuable possessions, 
and thus inflict some injury upon himself. Thinking the advice to be 
good, Polycrates threw into the sea a favorite ring of matchless price and 
beauty ; but, unfortunately, it was found a few days afterwards in the belly 
of a fine fish, which a fisherman had sent him as a present. Amasis now 
foresaw that the ruin of Polycrates was inevitable, and sent a herald to 
Samos to renounce his alliance. The gloomy anticipations of the Egyptian 
monarch proved well founded. In the midst of all his prosperity, Poly- 
crates fell by a most ignominious fate. Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, had 
for some unknown cause conceived a deadly hatred against the Samiau 
despot. By a cunning stratagem, the satrap allured him to the mainland, 
where he was immediately arrested and hanged upon a cross (b. c. 522). 
Like many other Grecian despots, Polycrates had been a patron of litera- 
ture and the arts, and the poets Ibycus and Anacreon found a welcome at 
his court. Many of the great works of Samos — the vast temple of Hera 
(Juno), the mole to protect the harbor, and. the aqueduct for supplying 
the city with water, carried through a mountain seven furlongs long — 
were probably executed by him. 

§ 1 2. The long reign of Darius forms an important epoch in the Per- 
sian annals. After putting down the revolts of the Lydian satrap, Oroetes, 
of the Medes, and of the Babylonians, he set himself to w^ork to organize 
the vast mass of countries which had been conquered by Cyrus and Cam- 
byses. The difference of his reign from those of his two predecessors was 
described by the Persians, in calling Cyrus the father, and Cambyses the 
master, and Darius the retail-trader, — an epithet implying that he was 



B. C. 521.] ' DARIUS. 151 

the first to introduce some order into the administration and finances of 
the empire. He divided his vast dominions into twenty provinces, and 
appointed the tribute which each was to pay to the royal treasury. These 
provinces were called satrapies, from the satrap or governor, to whom the 
administration of each was intrusted. Darius was also the first Persian 
king who coined money ; and the principal gold and silver coin of the 
Persian mint was called after him the Daric. He also connected Susa 
and Ecbatana with the most distant parts of the empire by a series of high- 
roads, along which were placed, at suitable intervals, buildings for the 
accommodation of all who tz'avelled in the king's name, and relays of cou- 
riers to convey royal messages. 

§ 13. Although Darius devoted his chief attention to the consohdation 
and oi'ganization of his empire, he was impelled by his own ambition, or 
by the aggressive spirit of the Persians, to seek to enlarge still further his 
vast dominions. For that purpose he resolved to attack Scythia, or the 
great plain between the Danube and the Don, which was then inhabited 
hj numerous nomad and savage tribes. His army was collected from aU 
parts of the empire ; his fleet of six hundred ships was furnished exclu- 
sively by the Asiatic Greeks. To the latter he gave orders to sail up the 
Danube, and throw a bridge of boats across the river, near the point where 
the channel begins to divide. With his land forces the king himself 
inarched through Thrace, crossed the Danube by the bridge, which he 
found finished, and then ordered the Greeks to break it down and follow 
him into Scythia. His plan seems to have been to march back into Asia 
round the northern shore of the Black Sea, and across the Caucasus. But 
being reminded by one of the Grecian generals that he was embarking 
upon a perilous enterprise, and might possibly be compelled to retreat, he 
thought it more prudent to leave the bridge standing under the care of the 
Greeks who had constructed it, but told them that, if he did not return 
within sixty days, they might break down the bridge, and sail home. The 
king then left them, and penetrated into the Scythian territory. The 
sixty days had already passed away, and there was yet no sign of the Per- 
sian army. But shortly afterwards the lonians, who still continued to guard 
the bridge, were astonished by the appearance of a body of Scythians, 
who informed them that Darius was in full retreat, pursued by the whole 
Scythian nation, and that his only hope of safety depended upon that 
bridge. They urged the Greeks to seize this opportunity of destroying 
the whole Persian army, and recovering their own liberty by breaking 
down the bridge. Their exhortations were warmly seconded by the 
Athenian Miltiades, the despot of the Thracian Chersonesus, and the 
future conqueror of Marathon. The other rulers of the Ionian cities were 
at first disposed to follow his suggestion ; but as soon as Histiaeus of Mile- 
tus reminded them that their sovereignty depended upon the support of 
the Persian king, and that liis ruin would involve their own, they changed 



.52 HISTOBY OF GREECE. [Chaf. XY 

their minds and resolved to preserve the bridge. After enduring great 
privations and sufferings, Darius and his army at length reached the' 
Danube, and crossed the bridge in safety. Thus the selfishness of these 
Grecian despots threw away the most favorable opportunity that ever 
presented itself of deUvering their native cities from the Persian yoke. 

§ 14. Notwithstanding the failure of his expedition against the Scythi- 
ans, Darius did not abandon his plans of conquest. Returning himself to 
Sardis, he left Megabazus with an army of eighty thousand men to com- 
plete the subjugation of Thrace, and of the Greek cities upon the Helle- 
spont. He gave to Histiaeus the town of Myrcinus, near the Strymon, 
which the Ionian prince had asked as a reward for his important service 
in the Scythian campaign. Megabazus experienced little difficulty in 
executing the orders of his master. He not only subdued the Thracian 
tribes, but crossed the Strymon, conquered the Pseonians, and penetrated 
as far as the frontiers of Macedonia. He then sent heralds into the lat- 
ter country to demand earth and water, as the customary symbols of sub- 
mission. These were immediately granted by Amyntas, the reigning 
mdnarch, B. c. 510 ; and thus the Persian dominions Were extended to 
the borders of Thessaly. 

While Megabazus was engaged in the conquest of the Pseoniansj he 
had noticed that Histiseus was collecting the elements of a power, which 
might hereafter prove formidable to the Persian sovereignty. Myrcinus 
commanded the navigation of the Strymon, and consequently the com- 
merce with the interior of Thrace ; and the importance of this site is 
shown by the rapid growth of the town of Amphipolis, which the Atheni- 
ans founded at a later time in the same locality. On his return to Sardis, 
Megabazus communicated his suspicions to Darius. The Persian king, 
perceiving that the apprehensions of his general were not without founda- 
tion, summoned Histigeus to liis presence, and, under the pretext that he 
could not bear to be deprived of the company of his friend, proposed that 
he should accompany him to Susa. Histiseus had no alternative but com- 
pliance, and mth unwilling steps followed the monarch to his capital. 
This apparently trivial circumstance was attended with important conse- 
quences, as we shall presently see, to the Persian empire and to the whole 
Hellenic race. 



B. C. 502.1 



THE IONIC REVOLT. 



153 




Behistuu Bock, on which are inscribed the exploits of Darius.* 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE IONIC REVOLT. 

} 1. Introduction. § 2. Naxian Exiles apply for Aid to Aristagoras. § 3. Expedition of 

Aristagoras and the Persians against Naxos. Its Failure. § 4. Revolt of Miletus and the 
other Greek Cities of Asia. § 5. Aristagoras solicits Assistance from Sparta and Athens, 
which is granted by the latter. § 6. Burning of Sardis by the Athenians and lonians. 
§ 7. Death of Aristagoras and Histi^us. § 8. Defeat of the Ionian Fleet at Lad^. § 9. 
Capture of Miletus and Termination of the Revolt. 

§ 1. Before setting out for Susa, Darius had appointed his brother 
Artaphernes satrap of the western provinces of Asia Minor, of which 
Sardis continued to be the capital, as in the time of the Lydian monarchy. 
The Grecian cities on the coast were nominally allowed to manage their 
own affairs ; but they were governed for the most part by despots, who 
were in reality the instruments of the Persian satrap, and were main- 
tained in their power by his authority. Miletus, which was now the most 



' * The above most remarkable document is carved on the side of a rocky mountain, per- 
pendicularly smoothed for the purpose. The mountain was known to the ancient Greeks 
as the Bagistan {to Baylaravov opos) , — a name formed from an old Persian word signify- 
ing Sacred to the Bagas, or gods. The sculptures consist of twelve figures in relief, below 
a single figure in the air, representing the Zend and Persian deity, Aurumazda or Or- 
muzd. The figures are the king, with two attendants, and nine captive rebels brought 
into his presence, with their hands tied behind them, and cords about their necks. Below 
the figures, and at the sides, are large panels on the smooth surface of the rock, filled 
with arrow-head inscriptions; the whole occupying a space of 150 feet in length, and 100 
in breadth, at the height of 300 feet from the base of the mountain. This mountainous 
document has been copied by Colonel Rawlinson, an English gentleman formerly residing 
at Bagdad in an official capacity. He has explained or interpreted the Persian part ol 
these inscriptions (they are written in three languages), and they prove to be a very intfflV 
esting and important record of the early part of the reign of King Darius. — Ed. 
20 



154 ^ HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XVl 

flourishing city of Ionia, was ruled by Aristagoras, the son-in-law of 
Histiseus, since Darius had allowed the latter to intrust the sovereignty 
to his son-in-law during his absence. For a few years after the return of 
the king to Upper Asia, the Persian empire enjoyed the profound calm 
which often precedes a storm. It was the civil dissensions of one of the 
islands of the -liEgean which first disturbed this • universal repose, and 
lighted up a conflagration which soon enveloped both Greece and Asia. 

§ 2. About the year b. c. 502, the oligarchical party in Naxos, one of 
the largest and most flourishing of the Cyclades, were driven out of the 
island by a rising of the people. The exiles applied for aid to Aristag- 
oras, who lent a ready ear to their request ; knowing that, if they were 
restored by his means, he should become master of the island. But his 
own forces were not equal to the conquest of the Naxians, since they pos- 
sessed a large navy, and could bring eight thousand heavy-armed infantry 
into the field. Accordingly, he went to Sardis to secure the co-operation 
of Artaphernes, holding out to the satrap the prospect of annexing not only 
Naxos and the rest of the Cyclades, but even the large and valuable island 
of Euboea, to the dominions of the Great King. He represented the en- 
terprise as one certain of success, if a hundred ships were granted to him, 
and offered at the same time to defray the expense of the armament. 
Ai'taphernes gave his cordial approval to the scheme ; and as soon as the 
king's consent was obtained, a fleet of two hundred ships was equipped 
and placed at the disposal of Aristagoras. The forces were under the 
command of Megabates, a Persian noble of high rank. 

§ 3. Taking the Naxian exiles on board, Aristagoras sailed from Mile- 
tus towards the Hellespont (b. c. 501). To divert the suspicions of the 
Naxians, a report was spread that the armament was destined for a dif- 
ferent quarter ; but upon reaching Chios, Megabates cast anchor off" the 
western coast, waiting for a fair wind to carry them straight across to 
Naxos. Being anxious that the ships should be in readiness to depart as 
soon as the order was given, Megabates made a personal inspection of the 
fleet, and discovered one of the vessels left without a single man on board. 
Incensed at this neglect, he summoned the captain of the ship, and or- 
dered him to be put in chains with his head projecting through one of the 
port-holes of his own vessel. It happened that this man was a friend and 
guest of Aristagoras, who not only set the authority of Megabates at 
defiance by releasing the prisoner, but insisted that the Persian admiral 
held a subordinate command to himself. The pride of Megabates could 
not brook such an insult. As soon as it was night, he sent a message to 
the Naxians to warn them of their danger. Hitherto the Naxians had 
had no suspicion of the object of the expedition; but they lost no time in 
carrying their property into the city, and making every preparation to 
sustain a long siege. Accordingly, when the Persian fleet reached 
Naxos they experienced a vigorous resistance ; and at the end of foui 



B. C. 500.] THE IONIC REVOLT. 155 

months they had made such little way in the reduction of the city, that 
they were compelled to abandon the enterprise and return to Miletus. 

§ 4. Aristagoras was now threatened with utter ruin. Having de- 
ceived Artaphernes, and incurred the enmity of Megabates, lie could 
expect no favor from the Persian government, and might be called upon 
at any moment to defray the expenses of the armament. In these diffi- 
culties he began to think of exciting a revolt of his countrymen ; and 
while revolving the project, he received a message from his father-in-law, 
Histianis, urging him to this very step. Afraid of trusting any one with 
so dangerous a message, Histiseus had shaved the head of a trusty slave, 
branded upon it the necessary words, and, as soon as the hair had gi-own 
again, sent him oflF'to Miletus. His only motive for urging the lonians to 
revolt was his desire of escaping from captivity at Su?a, tliinking that 
Darius would set him at liberty in order to put down an insurrection of 
his countrymen. The message of Histireus fixed the wavering resolution 
of Aristagoras. He forthwith called together the leading citizens of 
Miletus, laid before them the project of revolt, and asked them for advice. 
They all approved of the scheme, with the exception of Hecat;eus, who 
deserves to be mentioned on account of his celebrity as one of the earliest 
Greek historians. Having determined upon revolt, the next step was to 
induce the otiier Greek cities in Asia to join them in their perilous enter- 
prise. As the most effectual means to this end, it was resolved to seize 
the persons of the Grecian despots, many of whom had not yet quitted the 
fleet which had recently returned to Naxos. Aristagoras laid down the 
supreme power in Miletus, and nominally resigned to the people the man- 
agement of their own affairs. The despots were seized, and a democrat- 
ical form of government established throughout the Greek cities in Asia 
and in the neighboring islands. This was followed by an open declara- 
tion of revolt from Persia (b. c. 500). 

§ 5. The insurrection had now assumed a formidable aspect ; and be- 
fore the Persians could collect sufficient forces to cope with the revolters, 
Aristagoras resolved to cross over to Greece, in order to solicit assistance 
from the more poAverful states in the mother country. He first went to 
Sparta, which was now admitted to be the most powerful city in Greece. 
In an interview with Cleomenes, king of Sparta, he brought forth a bra- 
zen tablet, on which were engraven the countries, rivers, and seas of the 
world. After dwelling upon the wealth and fertility of Asia, he traced 
on the map the route from Ephesus to Susa, and described the ease with 
which the Spartans might march into the very heart of the Persian em- 
pire, and obtain possession of the vast treasures of the Persian ca])ital. 
Cleomenes demanded three days to consider this pi-oposal ; and when 
Aristagoras returned on the third day, he put to him the simple question, 
how far it was from the sea to Susa. Aristagoras, without considering 
the drift of the question, answered that it was a journey of three months. 



156 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XVI 

" Milesian stranger," exclaimed Cleomenes, " quit Sparta before sunset : 
you are no friend to the Spartans, if you want them to undertake a three 
months' journey from the sea." Still, however, Aristagoras did not de- 
spair, but went as a suppliant to the king's house, to see if he could 
accomplish by money what he had failed to do by eloquence. He first 
offered Cleomenes ten talents, and then gradually raised the bribe to 
fifty ; and perhaps the king, with the usual cupidity of a Spailan, might 
have yielded, had not his daughter Gorgo, a child of eight years old, ^vho 
happened to be present, cried out, " Fly, father, or this stranger will cor- 
rupt you." Cleomenes accepted the omen, and broke up the mterview. 
Aristagoras quitted Sparta forthwith. 

Disappointed at Sparta, Aristagoras repaired to Athens, then the second 
city in Greece. Here he met with a very different reception. Athens 
was the mother city of the Ionic states ; and the Athenians were disposed 
to sympathize with the lonians as their kinsmen and colonists. They 
were moreover incensed against Artaphernes, who had recently command- 
ed them to recall Hippias, unless they wished to provoke the hostility of 
Persia, Accordingly, they lent a ready ear to the tempting promises 
of Aristagoras, and voted to send a squadron of twenty ships to the assist- 
ance of the lonians. " These ships," says Herodotus, " were the begin- 
nmg of mischiefs between the Greeks and barbarians." 

§ 6. In the following year (b. c. 500) the Athenian fleet crossed the 
JEgean. They were joined by five slaips from Eretria in Euboea, wliich 
the Eretrians had sent to discharge a debt of gratitude for assistance 
which they had received from the Milesians in their war with Chalcis. 
Upon reaching the coast of Asia, Aristagoras planned an expedition into 
the interior. Disembarking at Ephesus, and being reinforced by a strong 
body of lonians, he marched upon Sardis. Artaphernes Avas taken un- 
prepared ; and not having sufficient troops to man the walls, he retired 
into the citadel, leaving the town a prey to the invaders. Accordmgly, 
they entered it unopposed ; and, while engaged in pillage, one of the sol- 
diers set fire to a house. As most of the houses were built of wickerwork 
and thatched with straw, the flames rapidly spread, and in a short time 
the whole' city was in flames. The inhabitants, driven out of their houses 
by this accident, assembled in the large market-place in the city ; and per- 
ceiving their numbers to be superior to those of the enemy, they resolved 
to attack them. Meantime reinforcements came pouring in from all quar- 
ters ; and the lonians and Athenians, seeing that their position was be- 
coming more dangerous every hour, abandoned the city and began to 
retrace their steps. But before they could reach the walls of Ephesus, 
they were overtaken by the Persian forces and defeated with great 
slaughter. The lonians dispersed to their several cities ; and the Athe- 
nians hastened on board their ships and sailed home. 

The burning of the capital of the ancient monarchy of Lydia was 



"B. e. 500.J THE IONIC REVOLT. 157 

attended with important consequences. When Darius heard of it, he 
burst into a paroxysm of rage. It was against the obscure strangers who 
had dared to invade his dominions and burn one of his capitals, tliat his 
wrath was chiefly directed. " The Atlienians," he exclaimed, " who are 
they ? " Upon b^ing informed, he took his bow, shot an arrow high into 
the air, saying, " Grant me, Jove, to take vengeance upon the Athenians " : 
and he charged one of his attendants to remind him thrice every day at 
dinner, " Sire, remember the Athenians." His first care, however, was 
to put down the revolt, which had now assumed a more formidable aspect 
than ever. The insurrection spread to the Greek cities in Cyprus, as well 
as to those on the Hellespont and the Propontis ; and the Carians warmly 
espoused the cause of the lonians. 

§ 7. A few months after the burning of Sardis the revolt had reached 
its height, and seemed to pi'omise permanent independence to the Asiatic 
Greeks. But they were no match for the whole power of the Persian 
empire, which was soon brought against them. A Phoenician fleet con- 
veyed a large Persian force to Cyprus, which was soon obliged to submit 
to its former masters ; and the generals of Darius carried on operations 
with vigor against the Carians, and the Greek cities in Asia. Aristagoras 
now began to despair, and basely deserted his countrymen, whom he had 
led into peril. Collecting a large body of Milesians, he set sail for the 
Thracian coast, where he was slain under the walls of a town to which he 
had laid siege. 

Soon after his departure, his father-in-law, Histiasus, came down to 
Ionia. Darius had at first been inclined to suppose that Histigeus had 
secretly instigated the lonians to revolt ; but the artful Greek not only 
succeeded in removing suspicion from himself, but persuaded Darius to 
send him into Ionia, in order to assist the Persian generals in suppressing 
the rebellion. But Artaphernes was not so easily deceived as his master, 
and plainly accused Histieeus of treachery when the latter arrived at Sar- 
dis. " I will tell you how the facts stand," said Artaphernes to Histiseus ; 
" it was you who made this shoe, and Aristagoras has put it on." Find- 
ing himself unsafe at Sardis, he escaped to the island of Chios ; but he 
was regarded with suspicion by all parties. The Milesians refused to ad- 
mit their former despot into their town ; and the lonians in general would 
not receive him as their leader. At length he obtained eight galleys from 
Lesbos, with which he sailed towards Byzantium, and carried on piracies 
as well against the Grecian as the barbarian vessels. This unprincipled 
adventurer met with a traitor's death. Having landed on the coast of 
Mysia to reap the standing corn round Atarneus, he was surprised by a 
Persian force and made prisoner. Being carried to Sardis, Artaphernes 
at once caused him to be crucified, and sent his head to Darius, who 
ordered it to be honorably buried, condemning the ignominious execution 
of the man who had once saved the life of the Great King. 



158 HISTORY OF GHEECE. [ChAP. XVI 

§ S. The death of Histieeus happened after the subjection of the loni- 
ans ; and their fall now claims our attention. In the sixth year of the 
revolt (b. c. 495), when several Grecian cities had already been taken by 
the Persians, Artaphernes resolved to besiege Miletus by sea and by land, 
since the capture of this city was sure to be followed by the submission of 
all the others. For this purpose he concentrated near Miletus all his 
land forces, and ordered the Phoenician fleet to sail towards the city. 
While he was making these preparations, the Pan-Ionic council assembled 
to deUberate upon the best means of meeting the threatening danger. As 
they had not sufficient strength to meet the Persian army in the field, it 
was resolved to leave Miletus to its own defences on the land side, and to 
embark all their forces on board their ships. The fleet was ordered to 
assemble at Lade, then a small island near Miletus, but now joined to the 
coast by the alluvial deposits of the Maeander. It consisted of three hun- 
dred and fifty-three ships, while the Phoenician fleet numbered six hundred 
sail. But notwithstanding their numerical superiority, the Persian gen- 
erals were afraid to risk an engagement with the combined fleet of the 
lonians, whose nautical skill was well known to them. They therefore 
ordered the despots, who had been driven out of the Grecian cities at the 
commencement of the revolt, and were now serving in the Persian fleet, 
to endeavor to persuade their countrymen to desert the common cause. 
Each of them accordingly made secret overtures to his fellow-citizens, 
promising them pardon if they submitted, and threatening them with the 
severest punishment in case of refusal. But these proposals were all 
unanimously rejected. 

Meantime great want of discipline prevailed in the Ionian fleet. There 
was no general commander of the whole armament; the men, though 
eager for hberty, were impatient of restraint, and spent the greater part 
of the day in unprofitable talk under the tents they had erected on the 
shore. In a council of the commanders, Dionysius of Phocsea, a man of 
energy and ability, pointed out the perils which they ran, and promised 
them certain victory if they would place themselves under his guidance. 
Being intrusted with the supreme command, Dionysius ordered the men 
on board the ships, and kept them constantly engaged in practising all 
kinds of nautical manoeuvres. For seven days in succession they endured 
this unwonted work beneath the burning heat of a summer's sun ; but 
on the eighth they broke out into open mutiny, and asked, why they 
should any longer obey a Phoctean braggart, who had brought only 
three ships to the common cause. Leaving their ships, they again 
dispersed over the island and sought the shade of their pleasant tents. 
There was now less order and discipline than before. The Samian 
leaders became alarmed at the prospect before them ; and, repenting 
that they had rejected the proposals made to them by their exiled des- 
pot, they reopened communications with him, and agreed to desert duT' 
ing the battle. 



B. C. 495.] SUBJUGATION OF IONIA. 159 

The Persian commanders, confident of victory, no longer hesitated to 
attack the Ionian fleet. The Greeks, not suspecting treachery, drew up 
their ships in order of battle ; but just as the two fleets were ready to 
engage, the Samian ships sailed away. Their example was followed by 
the Lesbians, and, as the panic spread, by the greater part of the fleet 
There was, however, one brilliant exception. The hundred ships of the 
Chians, though left almost alone, refused to fly, and fought with distin- 
guished bravery against the enemy, till they were overpowered by su- 
perior numbers. 

§ 9. The defeat of the Ionian fleet at Lade decided the fate of the 
war. The city of Miletus was soon afterwards taken by storm, and was 
treated with signal severity. Most of the males were slain ; and the few 
who escaped the sword were carried with the women and children into 
captivity, and were finally settled at Ampe, a town near the mouth of the 
Tigris. The fall of this great Ionic city excited the liveliest sympathy 
at Athens. Li the following year the poet Phrynichus, who had made 
the capture of Miletus the subject of a tragedy, and brought it upon the 
stage, was sentenced by the Athenians to pay a fine of a thousand 
drachmae " for having recalled to them their ov^^n misfortunes." 

The other Greek cities in Asia and the neighboring islands, which 
had not yet fallen into the hands of the Persians, were treated with 
equal severity. The islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were swept 
of their inhabitants ; and the Persian fleet sailed up the Hellespont and 
Propontis, carrying with it fire and sword. The inhabitants of Byzan- 
tium and Chalcedon did not await its arrival, but sailed away to Mesem- 
bria ; and the Athenian Miltiades only escaped falling into the power of 
the Persians by a rapid flight to Athens. 

The subjugation of Ionia was now complete. This was the third 
time that the Asiatic Greeks had been conquered by a foreign power ; 
first, by the Lydian Crcesus ; secondly, by the generals of Cyrus ; and 
lastly, by those of Darius. It was from the last that they suffered most ; 
and they never fully recovered their former prosperity. As soon as the 
Persians had satiated their vengeance, Artaphernes introduced various 
regulations for the government of their country. Thus, he caused a new 
survey of the country to be made, and fixed the amount of tribute which 
each district was to pay to the Persian government ; and his other meas- 
ures were calculated to heal the wounds which had lately been inflicted 
with such barbarity upon the Greeks. 



160 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[CHAP.xvn. 




The Plain and Tumulus of Marathon. 



CHAPTEE XVn. 



THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. 

\ 1. Expedition of Mardonius into Greece. § 2. Preparations of Darius for a second Inva 
sion of Greece. Heralds sent to the leading Grecian States to demand Earth and Water. 
§ 3. Invasion of Greece by the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes. Conquest of the 
Cyclades and Eretria. § 4. Preparations at Athens to resist the Persians. History of 
Miltiades. § 5. Debate among the Ten Athenian Generals. Resolution to give Battle to 
the Persians. § 6. Battle of Marathon. § 7. Movements of the Persians after the Battle. 
§ 8. Effect of the Battle of Marathon upon the Athenians. § 9. Glory of Miltiades. 
§ 10. His unsuccessful Expedition to Paros. § 11. His Trial, Condemnation, and Death. 
§ 12. History of jEgina. § 13. War between Athens and jEgina. § 14. Athens becomes 
a Maritime Power. ^ 15. Rivalry of Themistocles and Aristeides. Ostracism of the 
latter. 



§ 1. Darius had not forgotten his vow to take vengeance upon Athens. 
Shortly after the suppression of the Ionic revolt, he appointed Mardonius 
to succeed J^rtaphernes in the government of the Persian provinces bor- 
dering upon the -3Egean. Mardonius was a Persian noble of high rank, 
who had lately married the king's daughter, and was distinguished" by a 
love of glory. Darius placed at his command a large annament, with 
injunctions to bring to Susa those Athenians and Eretrians who had 
insulted the authority of the Great King. Mardonius lost no time in 
crossing the Hellespont, and commenced his march through Thrace and 
Macedonia, subdumg, as he went along, the tribes which had not yet sub- 
mitted to the Persian power. Meanwhile he ordered the fleet to double 
the promontory of Mount Athos, and join the land forces at the head of 
the Gulf of Therma. But one of the hurricanes, which frequently blow 



B. C. 490.J SECOND PERSIAN INVASION. 161 

off this dangerous coast, overtook tlie Persian fleet, destroyed three hun- 
dred vessels, and drowned or dashed upon the rocks twenty thousand men. 
Mardonius himself was not much more fortunate. In liis passage through 
Macedonia, he was attacked at night by the Brygians, an mdependent 
Thracian tribe, who slaughtered a great portion of his army. He re- 
mained in the country long enough to reduce this people to submission ; 
but his forces were so weakened, that he could not proceed farther. He 
led his army back across the Hellespont, and returned to the Persian 
court, covered with shame and grief. Thus ended the first expedition of 
the Persians against the Grecian states in Europe (b. c. 492). 

§ 2. The failure of this expedition did not shake the resolution of 
Darius. On the contrary, it only made him the more anxious for the 
conquest of Greece ; and Hippias was constantly near him to keep alive 
bis resentment against Athens. He began to make preparations for 
another attempt on a still larger scale, and meantime sent heralds to most 
of the Grecian states to demand from each earth and water as the symbol 
of submission. This he probably did in order to ascertain the amount of 
resistance he was likely to experience. Such terror had the Persians in- 
spired by their recent conquest of Ionia, that a large number of the Grecian 
cities at once comphed with the demand. But at Athens and at Sparta 
the heralds met with a very different reception. So indignant were the 
citizens of these states at the insolent demand, that the Athenians cast the 
herald mto a deep pit, and the Spartans threw him into a weU, bidding 
him take earth and water from thence. 

§ 3. Meanwhile Darius had completed his preparations for the invasion 
of Greece. In the spring of b. c. 490, a vast army was assembled in 
Cilicia, and a fleet of six hundred galleys, together with many transports 
for horses, was ready to receive them on board. The command was given 
to Datis, a Median, and Artaphernes, son of the satrap of Sardis of that 
name, and a nephew of Darius. Their instructions were generally to 
reduce to subjection all the Greek cities which had not already given 
earth and water ; but more particularly to burn to the ground the cities 
of Athens and Eretria, and to carry away the inhabitants as slaves. 
They were furnished with fetters for binding the Grecian prisoners ; and 
before the end of the year Darius fully expected to see at his feet the men 
who had dared to burn the city of Sardis. The possibility of failure 
probably never occurred either to the king himself, or to any of the sol- 
diers engaged in the expedition. 

Having taken their men on board, Datis and Artaphernes first sailed to 
Samos ; and, warned by the recent disaster of Mardonius in doubling the 
promontory of Mount Athos, they resolved to sail straight acron^s the 
JEgean to Euboea, subduing on their way the Cyclades. They first 
resolved to attack Naxos, which ten years before had gallantly repelled a 
large Persian force commanded by Megabates and Ai-istagoras of Mletus. 

21 



162 HISTORY OF GBF.ECE. [Chap. XVIL 

But the Naxians did not now even venture to wait the arrival of the Per- 
sians, but fled to the mountains, abandoning their town to the invaders, who 
burnt it to the ground. The other islands of the Cyclades yielded a ready 
submission ; and it was not till Datis reached Eubcea that he encountered 
any resistance. Eretria defended itself gallantly for six days, and re- 
pulsed the Persians with loss ; but on the seventh the gates were opened 
to the beseigers by the treachery of two of its leading citizens. The city 
was razed to the ground, and the inhabitants were put in chains, according 
to the command of the Persian monarch. 

Datis had thus easily accomplished one of the two great objects for 
which he had been sent into Greece. He now proceeded to execute his 
second order. After remaining a few days at Eretria, he crossed over to 
Attica, and landed on the ever memorable plain of Marathon, a spot which 
had been pointed out to him by the despot Hippias, who accompanied 
the Persian army. 

§ 4. It is now time to turn to Athens, and see what preparations had 
there been made to meet the threatening danger. Wliile the Persian army 
was on its passage across the JEgean, ten generals had been elected for the 
year, according to the regular custom, one for each tribe. Among these 
generals were three men whose names have acquired immortal fame, — 
MUtiades, Themistocles, and Aristeides. Of the two latter we shall have 
occasion to speak more fully presently ; but Miltiades claims our imme- 
diate attention. Miltiades had been the despot of the Chersonesus, 
whither he had been sent from Athens by Hippias about the year 516 
B. c., to take possession of the inheritance of his uncle, who bore the same 
name. As ruler of the Chersonesus, he had distinguished himself by his 
• bravery and decision of character. "We have already seen that he accom- 
panied Darius in his invasion of Scythia, and recommended the Ionian 
despots to break down the bridge of boats across the Danube and leave 
Darius to his fate. While the Persian generals were engaged in suppress- 
ing the Ionic revolt, he took possession of Lemnos and Imbros, expelled 
the Persian garrisons and Pelasgian inhabitants, and handed over these 
islands .to the Athenians. He had thus committed two great offences 
against the Persian monarch ; and accordingly, when the Phoenician fleet 
appeared in the Hellespont after the extinction of the Ionic revolt, he 
sought safety in flight, and hastily sailed away to Athens with a small 
squadron of five ships. He was hotly pursued by the Phoenicians, who 
were most eager to secure his person as an acceptable offering to Darius. 
They succeeded in taking one of his ships, commanded by his son Metio- 
chus, but Miltiades himself reached Athens in safety. Soon after his 
arrival, he was brought to trial on account of his despotism in the Cher- 
sonesus. Not only was he honorably acquitted at the time, probably on 
account of the recent service he had rendered to Athens by the conquest 
of Lemnos and Imbros, but such confidence did his abiUties inspire, thai 



B. C. 490.] SECOND PERSIAN INVASION. 163 

he was elected one of tlie ten generals of the republic on the approach of 
the Persian fleet. 

§ 5. As soon as the news of the fall of Eretria reached Athens, the 
courier Pheidippides was sent to Sparta to solicit assistance. Such was 
his extraordinary speed of foot, that he performed this journey of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles in forty-eight hours. The Spartans promised their 
aid ; but their superstition rendered their promise ineffectual, since it 
wanted a few days to the full moon, and it was contrary to their religious 
customs to commence a march during this interval. The reason given by 
the Spartans for their delay does not appear to have been a pretext ; and 
this instance is only one among niany of that blind attachment to ancient 
forms which chai'acterize this people throughout the whole period of their 
history. 

Meantime, the Athenians had marched to Marathon, and were encamped 
upon the mountains which surrounded the plain. Upon learning the 
answer which Pheidippides brought from Sparta, the ten generals were 
divided in opinion as to the best course to be pursued. Five of them 
were opposed to an immediate engagement with the overwhelming num- 
ber of Persians, and urged the importance of waiting for the arrival of the 
Lacedaemonian succors. Miltiades and the remaining four contended, on 
the other hand, that not a moment should be lost in fighting the Persians, 
not only in order to avail themselves of the present enthusiasm of the 
people, but still more to prevent treachery from spreading among their 
ranks, and paralyzing all united effort. The momentous decision, upon 
which the destinies of Athens, and indeed of all Greece hung, depended 
upon the casting vote of CaUimachus, the Polemarch; for down to this 
time the third Archon was a colleague of the ten generals.* To him 
MUtiades now addressed himself with the utmost earnestness, pointing out 
the danger of delay, and that only a speedy and decisive victory could save 
them from the treacherous attempts of the friends of Hippias within the 
city. The arguments of Miltiades were warmly seconded by Themistocles 
and Aristeides. CaUimachus felt their force, and gave his vote for the 
battle. The ten generals commanded their army in rotation, each for one 
day ; but they now agreed to surrender to Miltiades their days of com- 
mand, in order to invest the whole power in a single person. 

§ 6. While the Athenians were preparing for battle, they received 
unexpected assistance from the little town of Plat^a, in Boeotia. Grateful 
to the Athenians for the assistance which they had rendered them against 
the Tliebans, the whole force of Platsea, amounting to one thousand heavy- 
armed men, marched to the assistance of their allies, and joined them at 
Marathon. Their arrival at this crisis of the fortunes of Athens made a 
deep and abiding impression upon the Athenian people, and was recol- 

* See above, p. 86. 



164 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XVII 



lected with grateful feelings down to the latest times. The Athenian 
army numbered only 10,000 hophtes, or heavy-armed soldiers; there 
were no archers or cavalry, and only some slaves as light-armed attend- 
ants. Of the number of the Persian army we have no trustworthy- 
account, but the lowest estimate makes it consist of 110,000 men. 

The plain of Marathon lies on the eastern coast of Attica, at the dis- 
tance of twenty-two miles from Athens by the shortest road. It is in the 
form of a crescent, the horns of which consist of two promontories running 
into the sea, and forming a semicircular bay. This plain is about six 
miles in length, and in its widest or central part about two in breadth. 
Near each of the horns at the northern and southern extremities of the 
plain are two marshes. The uninterrupted flatness of the plain is hardly 
reheved by a single tree ; and on every side towards the land there rises 
an amphitheatre of rugged Umestone mountains, separating it from the 
rest of Attica.* 




Battle of Marathon. 
A A Athenian Army, b b Persian Army, c c Persian Fleet. 

On the day of battle the Persian army was drawn up along the plain 
about a mile from the sea, and their fleet was ranged behind them on the 
beach. The native Persians and Sacians, the best troops in the army, 



* The position of the armies in this celebrated battle is nowhere exactly stated by the 
ancients. Mr. Finlay the historian is of opinion that the Athenians posted themselves in 
the narrow pass at the southern end of the plain of Marathon. It is obvious that this 
route would be the one taken by the Persians for a march upon Athens ; since the other 
two — that by Vrana, and that by the ^nllage of Marathona, would be too difficult, on 
account of the rough and precipitous paths over the mountains, to be practicable for a 
large military force. But if the Athenians had taken up their position near Vrana, accord- 
ing to the general supposition and the representation in the above plan, they would have 
left the easy pass into the Mesogsea (still called by the ancient name) undefended, for the 
sake of defending the pass by Vrana, already sufficiently protected by nature. Herodotus 
says the Persians pursued the broken centre of the Greek army into the Mesogasa, or 
Midland; and this could only have been done by following the southern pass. An inspec- 
tion of the ground — Herodotus in hand — satisfied me that Mr. Finlay's view of the 
arrangements of this battle is the most probable, and the most in harmony with the account 
of the historian, who wrote nearest to the time of the event. Indeed, Mr. Finlay's long resi- 
dence in Greece, and his accurate knowledge of Greek topography, render any opinion of 
Viis on subjects of this kind one of the highest existing authorities. — Ed. 



B. C. 490.J BATTLE OF MARATHON. 168 

were stationed in the centre, which, was considered the post of honor. The 
Athenians occupied the rising ground above the plain, and extended fron:. 
one side of the plain to the other. This arrangement was necessary in 
order to protect their flanks bj the mountains on each side, and to prevent 
the cavalry from passing round to attack them in the rear. But so large 
a breadth of ground could not be occupied with so small a number of men, 
without weakening some portion of the line. Miltiades, therefore, drew 
up the troops in the centre in shallow files, and resolved to rely for success 
upon the stronger and deeper masses of his wings. The right wing, 
which was the post of honor in a Grecian army, was commanded by the 
Polemarch CaUimachus ; the hoplites were arranged in the order of their 
tribes, so that the members of the same tribes fought by each other's side ; 
and at the extreme left stood the Plataeans. 

Before the hostile armies join in conflict, let us try to realize to our 
minds the feelings of the Athenian warriors on this eventful day. The 
superiority of the Greeks to the Persians in the field of battle has become 
so familiar to our minds by the glorious victories of the former, that it 
requires some effort of the imagination to appreciate in its full extent the 
heroism of the Athenians at Marathon. The Medes and Persians had 
hitherto pursued an almost uninterrupted career of conquest. They had 
rolled over country after country, each successive wave ingulfing some 
ancient dynasty, some powerful monarchy. The Median, Lydian, Baby- 
lonian, and Egyptian empires had all fallen before them ; and latterly the 
Asiatic Greeks, many of whose cities were as populous and powei'ful as 
Athens itself, had been taught by a bitter lesson the folly of resistance to 
these invincible foes. Never yet had the Medes and Persians met the 
Greeks in the field and been defeated. " For hitherto," says Herodotus, 
" the very name of Medes had struck terror into the hearts of the Greeks ; 
and tlie Athenians were the first to endure the sight of their armor, and to 
look them in the face on the field of battle." 

it must, therefore, have been with some trepidation that the Athenians 
nerved themselves for the conflict. Miltiades, anxious to come to close 
quarters as speedily as possible, ordered his soldiers to advance at a run- 
ning step over the mile of ground which separated them from the foe. 
Raising the war-cry,' they rushed down upon the Persians, who awaited 
them with astonishment and scom, thinking them to be little short of mad- 
men thus to hurry to certain destruction. They were quickly undeceived ; 
and the battle soon raged fiercely along the whole line. Both the Athe- 
nians' wings wei-e successful, and drove the enemy before them towards the 
shore and the marshes. But the Athenian centre was broken by the 
Persians and Sacians, and compelled to take to flight. Miltiades there- 
upon recalled his wings from pursuit, and, rallying his centre, charged the 
Persians and Sacians. The latter could not withstand this combined 
attack. The battle had already lasted some hours, and the rays of the 
Betting sun streamed fuU in the faces of the enemy. The rout now became 



166 HISTORY OF GREECE. [CuAP. XVII 

general along the whole Persian line ; and they fled to their ships, pvu> 
sued oj the Athenians. 

" The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow; 
The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear; 
Mountains above, Eartli's, Ocean's plain below, 
Death in tlie front, destruction in the rear ! 
Such was the scene." 

The Athenians tried to set fire to the Persian vessels on the coast, but 
they succeeded in destroying only seven of them, for the enemy here 
fought witn the courage of despair. Thus ended the battle of Marathon. 

Tlie Persians lost 6,400 men in this memorable engagement: of the 
Atlienians only 192 fell. The aged despot Hippias is said to have 
perished in the battle, and the brave Callimachus was also one of the 
slain. Among the Athenian combatants were the poet ^schylus and his 
brother Cynaegeirus ; the latter of whom, while seizing one of the vessels, 
had his hand cut off by an axe, and died of the wound. 

§ 7. The Persians had no sooner embarked than they sailed towards 
Cape Sunium. At the same time a bright shield was seen raised aloft 
upon one of the mountains of Attica. This was a signal given by some of 
the partisans of Hippias to invite the Persians to surprise Athens, whUe 
the army was still absent at Marathon. Miltiades, seeing the direction 
taken by the Persian fleet, suspected the meaning of the signal, and lost 
no time in marching back to Athens. He an-ived at the harbor of Phale- 
rum only just in time. The Persian fleet was already in sight; a few 
hours more would have made the victory of Marathon of no avail. But 
when the Persians reached the coast, and beheld before them the very 
soldiers from whom they had so recently fled, they did not attempt to 
land, but sailed away to Asia, carrying with them their Eretrian pris- 
oners. 

§ 8. The departure of the Persians was hailed at Athens with one 
unanimous burst of heart-felt joy. Whatever traitore there may have 
been in the city, they did not dare to express their feehngs amidst the 
general exultation of the citizens. Marathon became a magic word at 
Athens. The Athenian people in succeeding ages always looked back 
upon this day as the most glorious in their annals, and never tired of hear- 
ing its praises sounded by their orators and poets. And they had reason 
to be proud of it. It was the first time that the Greeks had ever defeated 
the Persians in the field. It was the exploit of the Athenians alone. It 
had saved not only Athens, but all Greece. If the Persians had con- 
quered at Marathon, Greece must, in all likelihood, have become a Persian 
province ; the destinies of the world would have been changed ; and 
Oriental despotism might still have brooded over the fairest countries of 
Europe. 

Such a glorious victory had not been gained, so thought the Athenians, 
witliout the special interposition of the gods. The national heroes of 



B. C. 490.] MILTIADES. 167 

Attica were believed to have fought on the side of the Athenians ; and even 
in the time of Pausanias, six hundred years afterwards, the plain of Mara- 
thon was believed to be haunted by spectral warriors, and every night 
there might be heard the shouts of combatants and the neighing of horses. 
The one hundred and ninety-two Athenians who had perished in the 
battle were buried on the field, and over their remains a tumulus or 
mound was erected, which may still be seen, about half a mile from the 
sea. Their names were inscribed on ten pillars, one for each tribe, also 
erected on the spot ; and the poet Simonides described them as the cham- 
pions of the common independence of Greece : — 

" At Marathon for Greece the Athenians fought; 
And low the Medians' gilded power they brought." * 

§ 9. Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, was received at Athens with ex- 
pressions of the warmest admiration and gratitude. His trophies are said 
!to have robbed Themistocles of his sleep ; and the eminent services wliich 
he had rendered to his country were also acknowledged in subsequent 
generations. A separate monument was erected to him on the field of 
Marathon ; his figure occupied one of the promment places m the picture 
of the battle of Marathon which adorned the walls of the Poecile, or 
Painted Porch, of Athens ; and the poet gave expression to the general 
feeling in the lines : — 

" Miltiades, thy victories 
Must every Persian own; 
And hallowed by thy prowess lies 
The field of Marathon." t 

It would have been fortunate for his glory if he had died on the field of 
Marathon. The remainder of his lustory is a rapid and melancholy de- 
Bcent from the pinnacle of glory to an ignominious death. 

§ 10. Shortly after the battle, Miltiades requested of the Athenians a 
fleet of seventy ships, without telling them the object of his expedition, 
but only promising to enrich the state. Such unbounded confidence did 
the Athenians repose in the hero of Marathon, that they at once complied 
with his demand. This confidence Miltiades abused. In order to gratify 
a private animosity against one of the leading citizens of Paros, he sailed 
to this island, and laid siege to the town. Paros was one of the most 
flourishing of the Cyclades, and the town was strongly fortified. The cit- 
izens repelled all his attacks ; and he had begun to despair of taking the 
place, when he received a message from a Parian woman, a priestess of 
the temple of Demeter (Ceres), promising that she would put Paros in 
his power, if he would visit by night a temple from which all male per- 
sons were excluded. Catching at this last hope, he repaired to the ap- 
pointed place. He leaped over the outer fence, and had nearly reached 
the sanctuary, when he was seized with a panic terror, and ran away; 

* Translated by Sterling. t Wellesley's Anthologia, p. 263. 



168 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. XVIL 

but in getting back over the fence he received a dangerous injury on hfe 
thigh. He now abandoned all hope of success, raised the siege, and re- 
turned to Athens. 

§ 11. Loud was the indignation agaiast Miltiades on his return. He 
was accused by Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, of having deceived 
the people, and was brought to trial. His wound had already begun to 
show symptoms of gangrene. He was carried into court on a couch, and 
there lay before the assembled judges, while his friends pleaded on his 
behalf. They could offer no excuse for his recent conduct, but they 
reminded the Athenians of the inestimable services they had received 
from the accused, and urged them in the strongest terms to spare the 
victor of Marathon. The judges wei"e not insensible to this appeal ; and 
instead of condemning him to death, as the accuser had demanded, they 
commuted the penalty to a fine of fifty talents, probably the cost of the 
armament. He was unable immediately to raise this sum, and died soon 
allerAvards of his wound. The fine was subsequently paid by his son 
Cimon. Later writers relate that Miltiades died in prison ; but Herodo- 
tus does not mention his imprisonment, and we may therefore hope that 
the hero of Marathon was spared this further mdignity. 

The melancholy end of Miltiades must not blind us to his offence, and 
ought not to lead us to charge the Athenian people with ingratitude and' 
fickleness. The Athenians did not forget his ser^niees at Marathon, and 
it was their gratitude towards him which alone saved him from death. 
He had grossly abused the pubHc confidence, and deserved his punish- 
ment. A state which should give impunity to a criminal on account of 
previous services would soon cease to exist. 

§ 12. Soon after the battle of Marathon, a war broke out between 
Athens and ^gina, which continued down to the invasion of Greece by 
Xerxes. This war is of great importance in Grecian history, since to it 
the Athenians were indebted for their navy, which enabled them to save- 
Greece at Salamis as they had already done at Marathon. 

The rocky island of JEgina is situated in the Saronic Gulf, about twelve 
miles from the coast of Attica, and contains only about forty-one square 
English miles. But, notwithstanding its small extent, it is one of the most 
celebrated of the Grecian islands. In the mythical ages it was the resi- 
dence of JEacus, king of the Myrmidons, from whom Achilles and- some of 
the most illustrious Grecian heroes were descended. In historical times it 
was inhabited by a wealthy and enterprising Dorian people, who carried' 
on an extensive commerce Avith all parts of the Hellenic world. It is 
said that silver money was first coined in ^gina, by Pheidon, tyrant of 
Argos ; * and we know that the name of JEginetan was given to one of 
the two scales of weights and measures current throughout Greece. The 
wealth which its citizens acquired by commerce was partly devoted to 

* Respecting this statement, see p. 57. 



B. C. 489.] WAR BETWEEN ATHENS AND ^GINA. 10^ 

the encouragement of art, which was cultivated in this island with great 
success during the half-century preceding the Persian war. Indeed, dur- 
ing this period JEgina held a prominent rank among the Grecian stateSj 
and possessed the most powerful navy in all Greece. 

§ 13. There had been an ancient feud between Athens and ^gina, 
which first broke out into open hostilities a few years after the expulsion 
of Hippias from Athens. About the year 506 b. c. the Thebans, who 
had been defeated by the Athenians,* applied for aid to -^gina. This 
was immediately granted; and the ^ginetans immediately attacked the 
Athenian territory, without making any formal declaration of war. Of 
the details of this contest we have no information ; and we lose sight of 
..3Egina for the next few years. 

In the year before the battle of Marathon ^gina is mentioned among 
the Grecian states which gave earth and Avater to the envoys of Darius. 
It was, probably, as much hatred of the Athenians as fear of the Persians 
which led the -^ginetans to submit to Darius, hoping to crush their ob- 
noxious rivals with the help of the Great King. The Persians, however, 
were not yet in Greece ; and the Athenians lost no time in sending an 
embassy to Sparta, accusing the -^ginetans of having betrayed the com- 
mon cause of Hellas, and calling upon the Spartans, as the protectors of 
Grecian liberty, to punish the otfenders. This request met with prompt 
attention ; and Cleomenes, one of the Spartan kuigs, forthwith crossed 
over to ^gina. He was proceeding to arrest and carry away some of 
the leading citizens, when Demaratus, the other Spartan king, privately 
encouraged the JEginetans to defy the authority of his colleague. This 
was the second important occasion on which Demaratus had thwarted the 
plans of his colleague ; and Cleomenes returned to Sparta, firmly re- 
solved that Demaratus should not have a third opportunity. 

It appears that there had always been doubts respecting the legitimacy 
of Demaratus. Cleomenes now persuaded Leotychides, the next heir to 
the crown, to lay claim to the royal dignity, on the ground that Demaratus 
was disqualified by his birth. The Spartans referred the question to the 
Delphic oracle ; and, at the secret instigation of Cleomenes, the priestess 
declared that his colleague was illegitimate. Leotychides thus ascended 
the throne, and Demaratus descended into a private station. Shortly 
afterwards, the deposed monarch received a gross affront from the new 
king at a pubhc festival, whereupon he quitted Sparta in wrath, and re- 
paired to the Persian court, where we shall subsequently find him among 
the counsellors of Darius. 

Cleomenes now returned to ^gina, accompanied by Leotychides. The 
.^ginetans did not dare to resist the joint demand of the two Spartan 
kings, and surrendered to them ten of their leading citizens, whom Cle- 
omenes deposited as hostages in the hands of the Athenians. 

* See p. 106. 

22 



170 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XVH 

§ 14. After the battle of Marathon, the ^ginetans endeavored to Te* 
cover these hostages ; and the refusal of the Athenians to give them back 
led to a renewal of the war, which was prosecuted with great activity on 
both sides. It was now that Themistocles came forward with his cele- 
brated proposition, which converted Athens into a maritime power. Hith- 
erto the Athenians had not possessed a navy ; and Themistocles clearly 
saw that without a powerful fleet it would be impossible for his country- 
men to humble their rival. But his views extended still further. He 
well knew that Persia was preparing for another and still more formi- 
dable attack upon Greece ; and he had the sagacity to perceive that a 
large and efficient fleet would be the best protection against the barba- 
rians. Influenced by these two motives, and also impressed with the con- 
viction that the very position of Athens fitted it to be a maritime and not 
a land power, he urged the Athenians at once to build and equip a nu- 
merous and powerful fleet. The Athenians were both able and willing to 
follow his advice. There was at this time, a large surplus in the public 
treasury, arising from the produce of the valuable silver mines at Lau- 
rium. These mines, which belonged to the state, were situated in the 
southern part of Attica, near Cape Sunium, in the midst of a mountainous 
district.* It had been recently proposed to distribute this surplus among 
the Athenian citizens ; but Themistocles persuaded them to sacrifice their 
private advantage to the public good, and to appropriate this money to 
building a fleet of two hundred ships. The immediate want of a fleet to 
cope with the -lEginetans probably weighed with the Athenian people 
more powerfully than the prospective danger from the Persians. " And 
thus," as Herodotus says, " the ^ginetan war saved Greece by compel- 
ling the Athenians to make themselves a maritime power." Not only 
w:ere these two hundred ships built, but Themistocles also succeeded 
about the same time in persuading the Athenians to pass a decree that 
twenty new ships should be built every year. 

§ 15. Of the internal history of Athens during the ten years between 
the battles of Marathon and Salamis we have little information. We 
only know that the two leading citizens of this period were Themistocles 
and Aristeides. These two eminent men formed a striking contrast to 
each other. Themistocles possessed abilities of the most extraordinary 
kind. In intuitive sagacity, in ready invention, and in prompt and daring 
execution, he surpasses almost every statesman, whether of ancient or of 
modern times. "With unerring foresight he divined the plans of his ene- 
mies ; in the midst of difficulties and perplexities, not only was he never 
at a loss for an expedient, but he always adopted the right one ; and he 
carried out his schemes with an energy and a promptness which astonished 
both friends and foes. But these transcendant abilities were maa-red by a 

* Some of the shafts, and large accumulations of scoria, still testify to the extent of th€ 
ancient mining operations in the district of Laurium. — Ed. 



B. C. 485] THEMISTOCLES AND ARISTKTDES. 171 

want of honesty. In the exercise of power he was accessible to bribes, 
and he did not hesitate to employ dishonest means for the aggrandizement 
both of Athens and of himself lie closed a glorious career in disgrace- 
and infamy, an exile and a traitor. 

Aristeides was inferior to Themistocles in ability, but was incomparably 
superior, not only to him but to all his contemporaries, in honesty and in- 
tegrity. In the administration of pubHc affairs he acted with a single eye 
to the public good, regardless of party ties and of personal friendships. 
His uprightness and justice were so universally acknowledged, that he re- 
ceived the surname of the Just. But these very virtues procured him 
enemies. Not only did he incur the hatred of tliose wliose corrupt prac- 
tices he denounced and exposed, but many of his fellow-citizens became 
jealous of a man whose superiority was constantly proclaimed. We are 
told that an unlettered countryman gave his vote against Aristeides at the 
ostracism simply on the ground that he was tired of hearing him always 
called the Just. 

Between men of such opposite characters as Themistocles and Aris- 
teides there could not be much agreement. In the management of public 
affairs they frequently came into collision ; and they opposed each other 
with such violence and animosity, that Aristeides is reported to have said, 
^ If the Athenians were wise, they would cast both of us into the bara- 
thrum." After three or four years of bitter rivalry, the two chiefs appealed 
to the ostracism, and Aristeides was banished. 

Aristeides had used all his efforts to prevent the Athenians from aban- 
doning their ancient habits, and from converting their state from a land 
into a maritime power. There can be no doubt that he viewed such a 
change as a dangerous innovation, and thought that the sailor would not 
make so good an Athenian citizen as the heavy-armed soldier. It was 
fortunate, however, for the liberties of Greece, that the arguments of his 
rival prevailed. Aristeides w^as a far more virtuous citizen than Themis- 
tocles ; but their country could now dispense with the former much better 
than with the latter. 



Bust of MUtiade 



m 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



LChap. XVIIL 




View of ThennopylsB. 



CHAPTER XVni. 



THE BATTLES OF THEKMOPYLiE AND ARTEMISIUM. 

{ 1. Death of Darius and Accession of Xerxes. § 2. Preparations for the Invasion of 
Greece. § 3. A Bridge thrown across the Hellespont, and a Canal cut through the 
Isthmus of Mount Athos. § 4. Xerxes sets out from Sardis. Order of the March. 
§ 5. Passage of the Hellespont. § 6. Numbering of the Army on the Plain of Doriscus. 
^ 7. Continuation of the March from Doriscus to Mount Olympus. § 8. Preparations of 
the Greeks to resist Xerxes. Congress of the Grecian States at the Isthmus of Cor- 
inth. § 9. Patriotism of the Athenians. Resolution of the Greeks to defend the Pass 
of Tempe, which is afterwards abandoned. § 10. Description of the Pass of Thermopylse. 
§ 11. Leonidas sent out with Three Hundred Spartans to defend the Pass of Thermopylae. 
§ 12. Attack and Repulse of the Persians at ThermopylEe. § 13. A I^ersian Detachment 
cross the Mountains by a Secret Path in order to fall upon the Greeks in the Rear. 
^ 14. Heroic Death of Leonidas and his Comrades. § 15. Monuments erected to their 
Honor § 16. Proceedings of the Persian arid Grecian Fleets. § 17. The Persian Fleet 
overtaken by a Terrible Storm. ^ 18. The First Battle of Artemisium. ^ 19. Second 
Storm. § 20. Second Battle of Artemisium. Retreat of the Grecian Fleet to Salamis. 



§ 1. The defeat of tlie Persians at Marathon served only to increase 
tlie resentment of Darius. He now resolved to collect the whole forces 
of his empire, and to lead them in person against Athens. For three 
years, busy preparations were made throughout his vast dominions. In 
the fourth year, his attention was distracted by a revolt of the Egyptians, 
who had always borne the Persian yoke with impatience ; and before he 
could reduce them to subjection he was surprised by death, after a reign 
©f thirty-seven years (b. c. 485). 



B. C. 485.] ACCESSION OF XERXES. J73 

The death of Darius was a fortunate event for Greece. It deprived 
the Persians of an able ruler, who possessed an extensive knowledge of 
men and of affairs, and it gave the Athenians time to form the navy 
which proved the salvation of Greece. Xerxes, the son and successor of 
Darius, was a man of little ability and less experience. Being the favor- 
ite son of Atossa, the daughter of the great Cyrus, he had received the 
education of an Eastern despot, and been surrounded with slaves from his 
cradle. In person he was the tallest and handsomest man amidst the vast 
hosts which he led against Greece ; but there was notliing in liis mind to 
correspond to this fair exterior. His character was marked by faint- 
hearted timidity and childish vanity. Such was the monarch upon whom 
now devolved the execution of the schemes of Darius. 

Xerxes had not inherited his father's animosity against Greece, and at 
first appeared ready to abandon the enterprise. But he was surrounded 
by men who urged him to prosecute his father's plans. Foremost among 
these was Mardonius, who was eager to retrieve his reputation, and to 
obtain the conquered country as a satrapy for himself. The powerful 
family of the Thessalian Aleuadee and the exiled Peisistratids from Athens 
warmly seconded the views of Mardonius, exaggerating the fertility and 
beauty of Greece, and promising the monarch an easy and a glorious vic- 
tory. They also inflamed his ambition with the prospect of emulatmg the 
military glory of his father, Darius, and of his grandfather, Cyrus, and of 
extending his dominions to the farthest limits of the world. The only one 
of Ids counsellors who urged him to adopt a contrary course was Ids uncle 
Ai'tabanus ; but his advice was rejected, and Xerxes finally determined 
upon the invasion of Greece. 

§ 2. The subjugation of the Egyptians, however, claimed his immediate 
attention. This was effected without much difficulty in the second year 
of his reign (b. c. 484) ; and he was now at liberty to march against 
Greece. Darius had nearly completed Ids preparations for the invasion 
of Greece at the time of his death ; and the forces which he had collected 
were considered by this prudent monarch sufficient for the purpose. The 
new king was anxious to make a still more imposing display of his power. 
He was not satisfied with collecting a military power sufficient for the 
conquest of Europe ; he also resolved to gratify his vanity and love of 
ostentation by gathering together the most numerous armament which the 
world had evei- seen. Accordingly, for four years more the din of prepa- 
ration sounded throughout Asia. Troops were collected from every quar- 
ter of the Persian empire, and were ordered to assemble at Critalla, in 
Cappadocia. As many as forty-six different nations composed the land 
force, of various complexions, languages, dresses, and arms. Among 
them might be seen many strange and barbarous tribes, — nomad hordes 
of Asiatics, armed with a dagger and a lasso, with which they entangled 
their enemy, — Libyans, whose only arms were wooden staves with the 



174 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XV^III. 

end hardened in the fire, — and Ethiopians, from the Upper Nile, with, 
their bodies painted half white and half red, clothed with the skins of lions 
and panthers, and araied with arrows tipped with a point of sharp stone 
instead of iron. The fleet was furnished by the Phoenicians and lonians, 
and other maritime nations subject to the Persian monarch. Immense 
stores of provisions were at the same time collected from every part of the 
empire, and deposited at suitable stations along the line of march as far as 
the confines of Greece. 

§ 3. Wlaile these vast preparations were going on, two great works were 
also undertaken, which would at the same time both render the expedition 
easier, and bear witness to the grandeur and might of the Persian king. 
These were the construction of a bridge across the Hellespont, and the 
cutting of a canal through the isthmus of Mount Athos. The first of these 
works was intrusted to Phoenician and Egyptian engineers. The bridge 
extended from the neigborhood of Abydos,on the Asiatic coast, to a spot 
between Sestus and Madytus, on the European side, Avhere the strait is 
about an English mile in breadth. After it had been completed, it was 
destroyed by a violent storm, at which Xerxes was so enraged, that he 
not only caused the heads of the chief engineers to be struck ofi", but in 
his daring impiety commanded the " divine " Hellespont to be scourged, and 
a set of fetters cast into it. Thus having given vent to his resentment, 
he ordered two bridges to be built in place of the former, one for the army 
to pass over, and the other for the baggage and beasts of burden. The 
new work consisted of two broad causeways alongside of one another, each 
resting upon a row of ships, which were moored by anchors, and by cables 
fastened to the sides of the channel. 

The voyage round the rocky promontory of Mount Athos had become 
an object of dread to the Persians, from the terrible shipwreck which the 
fleet of Mardonius had suffered on this dangerous coast. It was to avoid 
the necessity of doubling this cape that Xerxes ordered a canal to be cut 
through the isthmus which connects the peninsula of Mount Athos with the 
mainland. This Avork employed a large number of men for three years. It 
was about a mile and a half long, and sufficiently broad and deep for two 
triremes to sail abreast. The traces of this canal, which are still distinctly 
visible, sufficiently disprove the assertion of many writers, both ancient 
and modern, that the cutting through of Mount Athos is a mere fiction.* 

§ 4. At the end of the year 481 B.C., all the preparations were com- 
pleted for the invasion of Greece. Xerxes spent the winter at Sardis ; and 
early in the spring of the following year (480) he set out from the Lydian 
capital in all the pomp and splendor of a royal progress. The vast host 

* Juvenal speaks of it as a specimen of Greek mendacity: — 

" creditur olim 
Velificatus Atlios, et quidquid Grsecia mendax 
Audet in historia." 



B.C. 480.] MARCH OP XERXES. 17t^ 

was divided into two bodies of nearly equal size, between which ample 
space was left for the Great King and his Persian guards. The baggage 
led the way, and was followed by one half of the army, without any dis- 
tinction of nations. Then after an interval came the retinue of the king. 
First of aU marched a thousand Persian horsemen, followed by an equal 
number of Persian spearmen, the latter carrying spears with the points 
doAvnwards, and ornamented at the other end with golden pomegranates. 
Behind them walked ten sacred horses, gorgeously caparisoned, bred on 
the Nisaean plain of Media ; next the sacred car of Jove, drawn by eight 
white horses ; and then Xerxes himself in a chariot, drawn by Nisaean 
horses. He was followed by a thousand spearmen and a thousand horse- 
men, corresponding to the two detachments which immedately preceded 
him. They were succeeded by ten thousand Persian infantry, called the 
" Immortals," because their number was always maintained. Nine thou- 
sand of them had their spears ornamented with pomegranates of silver at 
the reverse extremity; while the remaining thousand, who occupied the 
outer ranks, carried spears similarly adorned with pomegranates of gold. 
After the " Immortals " came ten thousand Persian cavalry, who formed 
the rear of the royal retinue. Then, after an interval of Uvo furlongs, 
the other half of the army followed. 

§ 5. In this order the multitudinous host marched from Sardis to 
Abydos, .on the Hellespont. Here a marble throne was erected for the 
monarch upon an eminence, from which he surveyed all the earth covered 
with his troops, and all the sea crowded with his vessels. His heart 
swelled within hiiA at the sight of such a vast assemblage of human 
beings ; but his feehngs of pride and pleasure soon gave way to sadness, 
and he burst into tears at the reflection, that in a hundred yeai's not one 
of them would be alive. At the first rays of the rising sun the army com- 
menced the passage of the Hellespont. The bridges were perfumed with 
frankincense and strewed with myrtle, while Xerxes himself poured 
libations into the sea from a golden beaker, and, turning his face towards 
the east, offered prayers to the sun that he might carry his A^ctorious arms 
to the farthest extremities of Europe. Then throwing the beaker into 
the sea, together -with a golden bowl and a Persian cimeter, he ordered 
the Immortals to lead the way. The army crossed by one bridge, and 
tlie baggage by the other; but so vast were their numbers, that they were 
seven days and seven nights in passing over, without a moment of inter- 
mission. The speed of the troops was quickened by the lasli, which was 
constantly employed by the Persians to urge on the troops in the battle 
as well as during the march.* 

§ 6. Upon reaching Europe, Xerxes continued his march along the 



* Whips made of the hide of the hippopotamus were used by Ibrahim Pasha to flog the 
Arabs into battle during the Egyptian invasion of Greece in 1827. 



176 jaiSX-OBT OF ^EJEECE. [Chap. XVIII, 

coast of Thrace. Upon arriving at the spacious plain of Doriscus, which 
is traversed bj the river Hebrus, he resolved to number both his land and 
naval forces. The mode employed for numbering the foot-soldiers was 
remarkable. Ten thousand men were first numbered, and packed to- 
gether as closely as they could stand ; a line was drawn, and a wall built 
round the place they had occupied, into wliich all the soldiers entered 
successively, till the whole army was thus measured. There were found 
to be a hundred and seventy of these divisions, thus making a total of 
1,700,000 foot. Besides these, there were 80,000 horse, and many war- 
chariots and camels, with about 20,000 men. The fieet consisted of 1,207 
triremes, and 3,000 smaller vessels. Each trireme was manned by 200 
rowers and 30 fighting men; and each of the accompanying vessels car 
ried 8 men, according to the calculation of Hei'odotus. Thus the naval 
force amounted to 517,610. The whole armament, both military and 
naval, which passed over from Asia to Doriscus, would accordingly con- 
sist of 2,317,610 men. Nor is this all. In' his march from Doriscus to 
Thermopylae, Xerxes received a still further accession of strength. The 
Thracian tribes, the Macedonians, and the other nations in Europe whose 
territories he traversed, supplied 300,000 men, and 120 triremes con- 
taining an aggregate of 24,000 men. Thus when he reached Thermopylae 
the land and sea forces amounted to 2,641,610 fighting men. This does 
not include the attendants, the slaves, the crews of the provision ships, 
&c., which, according to the supposition of Herodotus, were more in 
number than the fighting men ; but supposing them to have been equal, 
the total number of male persons who accompanied Xerxes to Ther- 
mopylae reaches the astounding aggregate of 5,283,220 ! ,^ 

Such are the vast numbers given by Herodotus. They seem so in- 
credible, that many writers have been led to impeach the veracity of the 
historian. But it cannot be doubted that Herodotus had received his 
account from persons who were present at Doriscus, and that he has 
faithfully recorded the numbers that had been related to him. It is 
probable, however, that these numbers were at first grossly exaggerated 
in order to please Xerxes himself, and were still further magnified by the 
Greeks to exalt their own heroism in overcoming such an enormous host. 
The exact number of the invading army cannot be determined ; but we 
may safely conclude, from all the circumstances of the case, that it was the 
largest ever assembled at any period of history. 

§ 7. From Doi'iscus Xerxes continued his march along the coast, 
through Thrace and Macedonia. The principal cities through which he 
passed had to furnish a day's meal for the immense host, and for this 
purpose had made preparations many months beforehand. The cost of 
feeding such a multitude brought many cities to the bi-ink of ruin. Tho, 
island of Thasos alone, which had to undertake this onerous duty on 
account of its possessions on the mainland, expended no less a sum than 



B. C. 480.] PREPARATIONS OP THE GREEKS. 177 

400 talents, or nearly £100,000 in our money ; and a witty citizen of 
Abdera recommended his countrymen to return thanks to the gods, 
because Xerxes was satisfied with one meal in the day. At Acanthus, 
Xerxes was gratified by the sight of the wonderful canal, which had been 
executed by his order. Here he parted for the first time from his fleet, 
which was directed to double the peninsulas of Sithonia and Pallene, 
and wait his arrival at the city of Therma, which is better known by 
its later name of Thessalonica. In his march through the wild and woody 
coimtry between Acanthus and Therma, his baggage-camels were attacked 
by lions, which then existed in this part of Europe.* At Therma he 
rejoined his fleet, and continued his march along the coast till he reached 
Mount Olympus, separating Macedonia from the country properly called 
Hellas. The part of Europe through which he had hitherto marched had 
been already conquered by Megabazus and Mardonius, and yielded im- 
plicit obedience to the Persian monarch. He was now for the first time 
about to leave his own dominions and tread upon the Hellenic soil. 

§ 8. The mighty preparations of Xerxes had been no secret in Greece ; 
and while he was passing the winter at Sardis, a congress of the Grecian 
states was summoned to meet at the Isthmus of Corinth. This congress 
had been convened by the Spartans and Athenians, who now made a 
vigorous effort to unite the members of the Hellenic race in one great 
league for the defence of their hearths and their homes. But in this at- 
tempt they failed. The salvation of Greece appeared to depend upon its 
unanimity, and this unanimity could not be obtained. Such was the terror 
inspired by the countless hosts of Xerxes, and so absurd did it seem to offer 
resistance to his superhuman power, that many of the Grecian states at 
once tendered their submission to him when he sent to demand earth and 
water, and others at a greater distance refused to take any part in the 
congress. 

Taking a glance at the Hellenic world, we shall be astonished to see 
how small a portion of the Greeks had the courage to resist the Persian 
despot. The only people north and east of the Isthmus of Corinth who 
remained faithful to the cause of Grecian liberty were the Athenians and 
Phocians, and the inhabitants of the small Boeotian towns of Plattea and 
Thespige. The other people in Northern Greece were either partisans of 
the Persians, like the Thebans, or were unwilling to make any great 
sacrifices for the preservation of their independence. 

In Peloponnesus, the powerful city of Argos stood sullenly aloof. The 
Argives had never forgotten that they were once the ruling people in 
Peloponnesus. They had made many attempts to resist the growing 
power and influence of Sparta ; but about five years before the battle of 



* The figure of a lion seizing a bull is found on the reverse of tlic coins of Ac;ui- 
thus. 

23 



178 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XVIIL 

Marathon (b. c. 595), they had been effectually humbled by the great 
victory which the Spartan king, Cleomenes, had gained over them, and in 
which as many as six thousand of their citizens perished. They therefore 
contemplated the invasion of Xerxes with indifference, if not with pleasure, 
and were more willing to submit to the sovereignty of the Persian mon- 
arch than to the supremacy of their hated rivals. The Achaeans likewise 
took no part in the contest, probably from hatred to the Dorians, who had 
driven their ancestors from their homes. 

From the more distant members of the Hellenic race no assistance was 
obtained. Envoys had been sent by the congress at Corinth to Crete, 
Corcyra, and Syracuse. The Cretans excused themselves under pretence 
of an oracle. The Corcyraeans promised their aid, and despatched a fleet 
of sixty vessels, but with strict orders not to double Cape Malea till the 
result of the contest should be known. Gelon, the ruler of Syracuse, 
offered to send a powerful armament, provided the command of the allied 
forces was intrusted to liim; but the envoys did not venture to accept 
a proposal, which would have placed both Sparta and Athens under the 
control of a Sicilian despot. 

§ 9. The desertion of the cause of Grecian independence by so many 
of the Greeks did not shake the resolution of Sparta and of Athens. The 
Athenians, especially, set a noble example of an enlarged patriotism. 
They became reconciled to the ^ginetans, and thus gained for the com- 
mon cause the powerful navy of their rival. They readily granted to the 
Spartans the supreme command of the forces by sea as well as by land, al- 
though they furnished two thirds of the vessels of the entire fleet. Their 
illustrious citizen Themistocles was the soul of the congress. He sought 
to enkindle in the other Greeks some portion of the ardor and energy 
which he had succeeded in breathing into the Athenians. The confed- 
erates bound themselves to resist to the death ; and in case of success, to 
consecrate to the Delphian god a tenth of the property of every Grecian 
state which had surrendered to the Persians without being compelled by 
irresistible necessity. 

The congi'ess had now to fix upon the spot where they should offer re- 
sistance to the Persians. The Thessalians, who dreaded the return of the 
Aleuadte to their cities, urged the congress to send a body of men to guard 
the pass of Tempe, which forms the entrance to Northern Greece. They 
promised to take an active part in the defence ; adding, that, if the request 
was refused, they should be obliged to make terms with the Persians. 
Accordingly a body of ten thousand men was sent into Thessaly under 
the command of the Spartan Euaenetus and the Athenian Themistocles. 
The pass of Tempe is a long and narrow defile in Mount Olympus, through 
which the river Peneus forces its way into the sea. On each side, steep 
and inaccessible mountains rise to a great height, and in some parts ap- 
proach so closely as to leave scarcely sufficient space for a road. It is im« 



B. C. 480.] 



BATTLE OF THEKMOPTL^. 



179 



possible for an army to force its way through this pass, if defended by a 
resolute body of men ; but upon arriving at the spot, the Grecian com- 
manders perceived that it would be easy for the Persians to land troops in 
their rear ; and they learnt at the same time, that there was another pas- 
sage across Mount Olympus, a little farther to the west. For these reasons 
they considered it necessary to abandon this position, and return to the 
Istlmius of Corinth. Their retreat was followed by the submission of the 
whole of Thessaly to Xerxes. 

§ 10. After Tempe, the next spot in Greece most convenient for de- 
fence against an invading army is the pass of Thermopylas. This cele- 
brated pass lies between the lofty and precipitous mountains of Qi^ta, and 
an inaccessible morass forming the edge of the Malian Gulf. It is about a 
mile in length. At each of its extremities the mountains approach so near 
the morass, as to leave barely room for the passage of a single carriage. 
These narrow entrances were called Pylae, or the Gates. The Northern, or 
to speak more properly, the western Gate, was close to the town of Anthela, 
where the Amphictyonic Council held its autumnal meetings ; while the 
southern, or the eastern Gate, was near the Locrian town of Alpeni. The 
space between the gates was wider and more open, and was distinguished 
by its hot springs, from which the pass derived the name of Thermopylae, 
or the " Hot Gates." This pass was as defensible as that of Tempe, and 
in one important respect possessed a decided superiority over the latter. 
The island of Euboea is here separated from the mainland by a narrow 
strait, which in one part is only two miles and a half in breadth ; and 
accordingly it is easy, by defending this part of the sea with a fleet, to pre- 
vent an enemy from landing troops at the southern end of the pass.* 




Plan of Thermopylae. 



* The present condition of Thermopylae corresponds closely with the ancient descrip 
tions, except that the morass, formed by the deposits of the Spercheios, occupies a space 



180 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XVIII. 

§ 11. The Greeks therefore resolved to make a stand at Thermopylae, 
and to defend at the same time both the pass and the Eubcean strait. 
The whole allied fleet, under the command of the Spartan Eurybiades, 
sailed to the north of Euboea, and took up its station off that portion of the 
northern coast of the island which faces Magnesia and the entrance to the 
Thessalian Gulf, and which was called Artemisium, from a neighboring 
temple of Artemis (Diana). It was, however, only a small land force that 
was sent to the defence of Thermopylfs. When the arrival of Xerxes at 
Therm a became known, the Greeks were upon the point of celebrating the 
Olympic games, and the festival of the Carnean Apollo, which was ob- 
served with great solemnity at Sparta and in the other Doric states. The 
Peloponnesians could not make up their minds to neglect these sacred 
games, even when the dreaded enemy was almost at their doors. They 
therefore resolved to send forward only a small detachment, which they 
thought would be sufficient to maintain the pass till the festivals were ovei*, 
when they would be able to march against Xerxes with all their forces. 
The command of this body was intrusted to the Spartan king, Leonidas, 
the younger brother and successor of Cleomenes. It consisted of 300 
Spartans, with their attendant Helots, and nearly 3,000 hoplites from the 
other Peloponnesian states. In their march through Boeotia they Were 
joined by 700 Thespians, who were warmly attached to the cause of 
Grecian independence, and also by 400 Thebans, whom Leonidas com- 
pelled the Theban government to furnish, much against its will. On their 
arrival at Thermopylae, their forces were still further augmented by 1,000 
Phocians and a body of Opuntian Locrians, so that their numbers were 
not much short of 7,000 men. 

It was now that Leonidas learnt, for the first time, that there was an 
unfrequented path over Mount Q^^ta, by which a foe might penetrate into 
Southern Greece without marching through Thermopylae. This path, com- 
mencing near Trachis, ascended the northern side of the mountain called 
Anopsea, along the torrent of the Asopus, crossed one of the ridges of 
Mount QEta, and descended on the southern side near the termination of 
the pass at the Locrian town of Alpeni. Leonidas was informed of the 
existence of this path by the Phocians ; and, at their own desire, he posted 
them at the summit, to defend it against the enemy. The Spartan king 

whicli at the time of the battle was covered with water. But the pass itself wotild be as 
difficult for an invading army to force against a small body of defenders as it was found 
to be by the Persians. The hot springs have incrusted the ground for many acres, over 
which the traveller walks or rides, every step causing a hollow sound. At present the 
streams are made to move the wheel of a mill to grind corn for the neighboring Villages, 
almost in the shadow of the poly andrion, where the Three Hundred were buried. From the 
mill a constant vapor arises, as if steam-works were in operation there. The heat of the 
water is about 111 degrees of Fahrenheit. A bath at Thermopylae is not only very refresh- 
ing after a hard day's journey, but would be an excellent remedy for rheumatism and 
other similar complaints, if the patient could only get there. The scenery, independent of 
te great historical associations is wild and picturesque in the highest degree. — Ed. 



B. C. 480.] BATTLE OF THERMOPTL^. 181 

took up his station, with the remainder of his troops, within the pass of 
Thermopylas. He rendered his position still stronger by rebuilding across 
the northern entrance a wall, which had been erected in former days by 
the Phocians, but wliich had been suffered to fall into ruins. Having thus 
made a,ll his arrangements, Leonidas calmly awaited the approach of the 
Persian host. But the majority of the men did not share the calmness of 
their general ; and so great became their alarm at the smallness of their 
numbers, when the multitudinous forces of Xerxes began to di-aw near, 
that the Peloponnesians were anxious to abandon their present position 
and make the Isthmus of Corinth their point of defence. It was only the 
personal influence of Leonidas, seconded by the indignant remonstrancea 
of the Phocians and Locrians, which prevailed upon them to continue 
faithful to their post. At the same time, he despatched messengers to the 
various cities, urging them to send him immediate reinforcements. 

§ 12. Meanwhile Xerxes had arrived within sight of Thermopylae. 
He had heard that a handful of desperate men, commanded by a Spartan, 
had determined to dispute his passage, but he refused to believe the news. 
He was still more astonished when a horseman, whom he had sent to re- 
connoitre, brought back word that he had seen several Spartans outside 
the wall in front of the pass, some amusing themselves with gymnastic 
exercises, and others combing their long hair. In great perplexity, he 
sent for the Spartan king, Demaratus, who had accompanied him from 
Persia, and asked him the meaning of such madness. Demaratus replied, 
that the Spartans would defend the pass to the death, and that it was their 
practice to dress their heads with peculiar care when they were going to 
hazard their lives. Xerxes still could not believe that they were mad 
enough to resist his mighty host, and delayed liis attack for four days, 
expecting that they would disperse of their own accord. Later writers 
related, that Xerxes sent to them to deliver up their arms. Leonidas 
desired him " to come and take them." One of the Spartans being told 
that " the Persian host was so prodigious, that their arrows would con- 
ceal the sun": — "So much the better," he replied, "we f-hali tiien 
fight in the shade." 

At length, upon the fifth day, Xerxes ordered a chosen body of Medes 
to advance against the presumptuous foes, and bring them into his pres- 
ence. Remembering their former glory as the masters of Asia, and anx- 
ious to avenge their defeat at Maratlion, the Medes fought with bravery ; 
but their superior numbers were of no avail in such a narrow space, and 
they were kept at bay by the long spears and steady ranks of the Greeks. 
After the combat had lasted a long time with heavy loss to the Medes. 
Xerxes ordered his ten thousand " Immortals " to advance. But these 
were as unsuccessful as the former. Xerxes beheld the repulse of hia 
troops from a lofty throne which had been provided for him, and was seen 
to leap thrice from his seat in an agony of fear or rage. 



182 HISTOKY OF GEEECE. [ChaP. XVIII. 

§ 13. On the following day the attack was renewed, but with no better 
success ; and Xerxes was beginning to despair of forcing his way through 
the pass, when a Malian, of the name of Ephialtes, betrayed to the Persian 
king the secret of the path aci'oss the mountains. Overjoyed at this dis- 
covery, a strong detachment of Persians was ordered to follow the traitor. 
They set out at niglitfall, and at daybreak had nearly reached the summit, 
where the Phocians were stationed. In Greece the dawn of day is distin- 
guished by a peculiar stillness ; and the universal silence was first broken 
by the trampling of so many men upon the leaves with which the sides of 
the mountains were strewed. The Phocians flew to arms, and, anxious 
for their own safety, became unmindful of the important trust which had 
been committed to them, abandoned the path, and took refuge on the high- 
est part of the ridge. The Persians, without turning aside to pursue them, 
continued their march along the path, and began to descend the southern 
side of the mountain. 

Meantime Leonidas and his troops had received ample notice of the 
impending danger. During the night, deserters from the enemy had 
brought him the news ; and their intelligence was confirmed by his own 
scouts on the hills. In the council of war, which was forthwith summoned 
by Leonidas, opinions were divided ; the majority recommended that they 
should retire from a position which could no longer be defended, and re- 
serve their lives for the future safety of Greece. But Leonidas refused 
to retreat. As a Spartan he was bound by the laws to conquer or to die 
in the post assigned to him ; and he was the more ready to sacrifice his 
life, since an oracle had declared that either Sparta itself or a Spai'tan 
king must perish by the Persian arms. His three hundred comrades were 
fully equal to the same heroism which actuated their king ; and the seven 
hundred Thespians resolved to share the fate of this gallant band. He 
allowed the rest of the allies to retire, with the exception of the four hun- 
dred Boeotians, whom he retained as hostages. 

§ 1 4. Xerxes delayed his attack till the middle of the day, when it was 
expected that the detachment sent across the mountain would arrive at 
the rear of the pass. But Leonidas and his comrades, only anxious to sell 
their lives as dearly as possible, did not wait behind the wall to receive 
the attack of the Persians, but advanced into the open space in front of 
the pass, and charged the enemy with desperate valor. Numbers of the 
Persians were slain ; many were driven into the neighboring sea ; and 
others again were trampled to death by the vast hosts behind them. Not- 
withstanding the exhortations of their oflScers, and the constant use of the 
lash, it'was with difficulty that the barbarians could be brought to face 
this handful of heroes. As long as the Greeks could maintain their ranks 
they repelled every attack ; but when their spears were broken, and they 
had only their swords left, the enemy began to press in between them. 
Leonidas was one of the first that fell, and around his body the battle 



B. C. 480.] BATTLE OF ARTEMISIUM. 18S 

raged fiercer than ever. The Persians made the greatest efforts to obtain 
possession of it ; but four times they were driven back by the Greeks 
with great slaughter. At length, thinned in numbers, and exhausted by 
fatigue and wounds, this noble band retired within the pass, and seated 
themselves on a hillock behind the wall. Meanwhile, the detachment 
which had been sent across the mountains began to enter the pass from 
the south. The Thebans seized the opportunity of begging quarter, pro- 
claiming that they had been forced to fight against their will. Their lives 
were spared ; and the detachment marched on through the pass. The 
surviving heroes were now surrounded on every side, overwhelmed with 
a shower of missiles, and killed to a man. 

§ 15. On the hillock where the Greeks made their last stand, a marble 
lion was set up in honor of Leonidas. Tavo other monuments were also 
erected near the spot. The inscription on the first recoi*ded " that four 
thousand Peloponnesians had here fought with three hundred myriads (or 
three millions) of foes." The second, which was destined for the Spartans 
alone, contained the memorable words : — 

" Stranger, the tidings to the Spartans tell, 
That here, obeying their commands, we fell." * 

Both of these epigrams were probably written by the poet Simonides, who 
also celebrated the glory of the heroes of Thermopylae in a noble ode, 
of which the following fragment is still extant : — 

" Of those who at Thermopyl* were slain, 
Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot ; 
Their tomb an altar: men from tears refrain 
To honor them, and praise, but mourn them not. 
Such sepulchre, nor drear decay 

Nor all-destroying time shall waste ; this right have they. 
Within their grave the home-bred glory 
Of Greece was laid ; this witness gives 
Leonidas the Spartan, in whose story 
A wreath of famous virtue ever lives." f 

§ 16. While Leonidas had been fighting at Thermopylae, the Greek 
fleet had also been engaged with the Persians at Artemisium. The 
Greek ships assembled off the northern coast of Euboea were two hundred 
and seventy-one in number, commanded, as has been mentioned above, by 
the Spartan Eurybiades. The Athenian squadron was led by Themisto- 
cles and the Corinthian by Adeimantus ; but of the other commanders we 
have no mention. Three vessels were sent ahead to watch the movements 
of the Persians. Off the island of Sciathus they were captured by a 
squadron of ten Persian vessels, which had in like manner been de- 

* Q ^fiv', ayyeXKfiv AaKfbaifioviois, on r^Se 
Keiiieda, rols Ke'ivatv prjfiaai nfidofitvoi. 
Translated at Thermopyte. — Ed. 
t Stsrhng. 



184' HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XVm 

spatched by the Persian admiral to obtain intelligence. As soon as the 
Greeks at Artemisium heard of this disaster, and of the speedy approach 
of the whole Persian fleet, they were seized with a panic, such as had 
taken possession of the soldiers of Leonidas upon the advance of the land 
force of the Persians. But Eurybiades did not possess the same influence 
over his men as the Spartan king ; and the whole fleet abandoned their 
position, and sailed up the channel between Euboea and the mainland to 
Chalcis, where the straits, being only forty yards across, might easily be 
defended by a few ships. This retreat was equivalent to an abandonment 
of the whole scheme of defence, as it gave the Persians full liberty to 
land troops in the rear of the defenders of Thermopylae. But now a 
mightier power than that of man came forward, and saved the Greeks in 
spite of themselves. 

§ 17. The Persian admiral, having learnt from the ten ships sent on 
the look-out that the coast was clear, set sail from the Gulf of Therma, 
and arrived in one day at almost the southern corner of Magnesia. Along 
the greater part of this coast the high and precipitous rocks of Mount Pe- 
lion Une the water's edge ; but there is an open beach for a short distance 
between the town of Casthanaea and the promontory of Sepias. Here the 
Persian admiral determined to pass the night ; but owing to the vast number 
of his ships, only a small portion of them could be drawn up on shore ; the 
remainder rode at anchor eight hnes deep. In this position they were 
overtaken on the following morning by a sudden hurricane, which blew 
upon the shore with irresistible fury. The ships were torn from their 
anchorage, and driven against one another, and dashed against the cliffs. 
For three days and three nights the tempest raged without intermission ; 
and when, on the fourth day, calm at length returned, the shore was seen 
strewed for many miles with wrecks and corpses. At least four hundred 
ships of war were destroyed, together with a countless number of trans- 
ports, stores, and treasures. The remainder of the fleet doubled the south- 
em promontory of Magnesia, and cast anchor at Aphetse at the entrance 
to the Pagassean Gulf. 

§ 18. The news of this terrible disaster, which report had magnified 
into the entire destruction of the Persian fleet, revived the spirits of the 
Greeks at Chalcis. They now sailed back with the utmost speed to their 
former station at Artemisium, which is opposite Aphetaa, at the distance of 
only a few miles. But great was their surprise at seeing that the Per- 
sians still possessed such an overwhelming number of ships. The sight 
again struck them with alarm ; and they were on the point of returning to 
Chalcis, when the Euboeans sent one of their citizens to Themistocles, with 
an offer of thirty talents, on condition that he should induce the Greek 
commanders to remain and hazard a battle in defence of the island. 
There can be no doubt that Themistocles had already urged his associates 
in command to defend the Euboean strait against the enemy, and he therC' 



B. C. 480.] BATTLE OF ARTESnSIUM. 183 

fore readily undertook the commission offered him by the Euboeans. In 
all periods of their history, the Greeks seldom had sufficient principle to 
resist a bribe ; and Themistocles was now enabled to accomphsh by 
money what he had failed to do by argument. By giving five talents to 
the Spartan Eurybiades, three to the Corinthian Adeimantus, and presents 
to the other commanders, he prevailed upon them to remain. 

WTiile the Greeks were thus brought with difficulty to face the enemy, 
the Persian fleet was animated with a very different spirit. They felt 
confident of victory, and their only fear was lest the Greeks should escape 
them. In order to prevent this,, they sent a squadron of two hundred 
ships, with instructions to sail round Eubcea and cut off the retreat of the 
Greeks. Themistocles had now succeeded in inspiring his comrades with 
sufficient courage to ssiil forth and offer battle to the enemy. But being 
anxious to acquire some experience of the nautical evolutions of the 
enemy before they ventured upon a decisive engagement, they waited tiU 
it was nearly duak. Their ships were drawn up in a circle, with their 
sterns pointed inwards ; and they seemed to be awaiting the attack of the 
enemy who began to close in upon them on every side. But suddenly, at 
a given signal, they rowed out in all directions, and attacked the enemy's 
ships, of which they took or disabled no fewer than thirty. The Persians 
were not prepared for such boldness, and were at first thrown into confu- 
sion ; but they soon rallied, and began to inflict considerable damage upon 
the Greeks, when night put an end to the contest, and each fleet returned 
to its former station, — the Greeks to Artemisium, and the Persians to 
Aphetge. 

§ 19. This auspicious commencement raised the courage of the Greeks, 
and gave them greater confidence in their own strength. They were still 
further encouraged by the events of the following night. It seemed as if 
the gods had come to fight on their side. For although it was the middle 
of summer, at which season rain rarely falls in Greece, another terrific 
storm burst upon the Persians. All night long it blew upon the coast at 
Aphetae, thus causing httle inconvenience to the Greeks upon the opposite 
shore. The main body of the Persian fleet sustained considerable dam- 
age ; and the squadron which was sailing round Euboea was completely 
destroyed. The greater part of the eastern side of this island is an un- 
broken line of precipitous rocks, with scarcely a ravine in which even a 
boat can be hauled up. The squadron was overtaken by the storm ofi 
one of the most dangerous parts of the coast, called " the Hollows," and 
was driven upon the rocks and broken to pieces. 

The tidings of this second disaster to the Persian fleet reached the 
Greeks on the following day ; and while they were congratulating them- 
selves upon the visible interposition of the gods in their favor, they were 
animated to still greater confidence by the arrival of fifty-three fresh 
Athenian ships. With this reinforcement they sailed out in the afler- 
24 



186 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XVIII; 

noon, and destroyed some Cilician ships at their moorings ; but the Per- 
sian fleet had suffered too much from the storm in the preceding night to 
engage in battle. 

§ 20. Indignant at these insults, and dreading the anger of Xerxes, the 
Persians prepared to make a grand attack upon the following day. Ac- 
cordingly, about noon they sailed towards Artemisium in the form of a 
crescent. The Greeks kept near the shore, that they might not be sur- 
rounded, and to prevent the Persians from bringing their whole fleet into 
action. The battle raged furiously the whole day, and each side fought 
with determined valor. The Egyptians distinguished themselves most 
among the Persians, and the Athenians among the Greeks. Both parties 
suffered severely ; and though the Persians lost a greater number of ships 
and men, yet so many of the Greek vessels were disabled, that they found 
it would be impossible to renew the combat. 

Under these circumstances the Greek commanders saw that it would be 
necessary to retreat ; and their determination was hastened by the intelli- 
gence which they now received, that Leonidas and his companions had 
fallen, and that Xerxes was master of the pass of Thermopylae. They forth- 
with sailed up the Euboean channel, the Corinthians leading the van and 
the Athenians bringing up the rear. At the various landing-places along 
the coast Themistocles set up inscriptions, calling upon the lonians not to 
fight against their fathers. He did this in the hopes either of detaching 
some of the lonians from the Persians, or at any rate of making them 
objects of suspicion to Xerxes, and thus preventing the monarch from 
employmg them in any important service. Having sailed through the 
Eubcean strait, the fleet doubled the promontory of Sunium, and did not 
stop tin it reached the island of Salamis. 



B. C. 480.] EESULTS OP THE BATTLE OP THERMOPTL^. 187 




A Greek Warrior. From an Ancient Vase. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 

\ 1. Results of the Battle of Thermopylae. § 2. Alarm and Flight of the Athenians. 
§ 3. March of the Persians and Attempt upon Delphi. § 4. Taking of Athens and 
Arrival of the Persian Fleet. § 5. Dissensions and Debates of the Greeks. § 6. Strata- 
gem of Themistocles. Arrival of Aristeides. § 7. Position of the Hostile Fleets. Prep- 
arations for the Combat. ^ 8. Battle of Salamis. ^ 9. Defeat and Flight of Xerxes. 
§ 10. Pursuit of the Greeks. § 11. Homeward March of Xerxes. § 12. The Greeks 
celebrate their Victory. § 13. Carthaginian Expedition to Sicily. Defeat and Death 
of Hamilcar. 

§ 1. The apathy of the Lacedaemonians in neglecting to provide a 
sufficient defence against the advancing host of Xerxes seems altogether 
unaccountable ; nor is it easy to understand why the Athenians themselves 
did not send a single troop to aid in defending Thermopylae. The heroic 
and long-sustained resistance of the handful of men who perished in that 
pass, as well as the previous battle of Marathon, clearly proves that a 
moderately numerous force, together with ordinary military precautions, 
would have sufficed to arrest the onward march of the Persians. But the 
small body to which that duty was assigned was altogether inadequate to 
the occasion. The forcing of the pass annihilated the chief defence of 
Southern Greece. Many of the Grecian states which before were waver- 
ing now declared for the invader, and sent contingents to his army; 
whilst his fleet was also strengthened by reinforcements from Carystua 
and the Cyclades. 



188 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX 

The Athenians were now threatened with inevitable destruction. The 
Peloponnesians had utterly neglected their promise of assembling a force 
in Boeotia for the protection of Attica; and there was consequently 
nothing to prevent the Persians from marching straight to Athens. The 
isolated -position of the Peloponnesians had probably influenced them in 
their selfish policy ; at all events, on the news of the defeat at Ther- 
mopylfe, they abandoned Attica and the adjoining states to their fate, 
whilst they strained every nerve to secure themselves by fortifying the 
Isthmus of Corinth. It is true that in this selfish proceeding they over- 
looked the fact that their large extent of coast could not be thus secured 
from the descent of the Persian fleet. But after all, the greatest as well 
as the most pressing danger arose from the army of Xerxes. At sea, the 
Greeks and the Barbarians were much more nearly matched ; and if the 
multitudinous land forces of the Persian monarch were once arrested in 
their progress, and compelled to retreat, there was perhaps little reason to 
dread that his fleet, composed mostly of auxiliaries, would be able to make 
any permanent impression on the Peloponnesus, or indeed to remain upon 
the coast of Greece. 

§ 2. The Athenians, relying upon the march of a Peloponnesian army 
into Boeotia, had taken no measures for the security of their families and 
property, and beheld with terror and dismay the barbarian host in full 
march towards their city. Fortunately, the Grecian fleet, on retiring from 
Artemisium, had stopped at Salamis on its way to Troezen, where it had 
been ordered to re-assemble ; and, at the entreaties of the Athenians, 
Eurybiades consented to remain for a time at Salamis, and to assist the 
Athenian citizens in transporting their families and effects. It was thus 
by accident, and not from any preconcerted military plan, that Salamis 
became the station of the Grecian fleet. 

In six days, it was calculated, Xerxes would be at Athens, — a short 
space to remove the population of a whole city ; but fear and necessity 
work wonders. Before it had elapsed, all who were willing to abandon 
their homes had been safely transported, some to ^gina, the greater part 
to Troezen, where they met with an hospitable reception ; but many could 
not be induced to proceed farther than Salamis. It was necessary for 
Themistocles to use all his art and all his eloquence on this occasion. 
Those who were deaf to the voice of reason were assailed with the terrors 
of superstition. On a first inten-ogation the oracle of Delphi warned 
the Athenians to fly to the ends of the earth, since nothing could save 
them from destruction. In a second response the Delphian god was more 
obscure but less alarming. " The divine Salamis would make women 
childless," — yet " when all was lost, a wooden wall would still shelter the 
Athenians." In the interpretation of Themistocles, by whom these words 
had perhaps been suggested, they clearly indicated a fleet and a nav^l 
victory as the only means of safety. As a further persuasion, it was 



B. C. 480.J THE ATHENIANS ABANDON THEIR CITY. 189 

declared tliat the Sacred Serpent, wliicli haunted the temple of Athena 
Polias, on the Acropolis, had deserted the sanctuary ; and could the citi- 
zens hesitate to follow the example of their guardian deity ? 

In some, however, superstition, combined with love of their ancient 
homes, worked in an opposite direction. The oracle which declared the 
safety of the Athenians to lie in their wooden walls might admit of an 
other meaning ; and a few, especially among the aged and the poor, re- 
solved to shut themselves up in the AcropoHs, and to fortify its accessible 
or western, front with barricades of timber. Not only in them, but even 
in those who had resolved to abandon Athens, the love of country grew 
stronger in proportion as the danger of losing it became more imminent. 
The present misery extinguished past dissensions. Themistocles pro- 
posed a decree revoking all sentences of banishment, and specially includ- 
ed in it his opponent and rival Aristeides. The rich and the aristocratic 
assisted the city both by their example and their money. The Hippeis, 
or knights, headed by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, marched in procession 
to the Acropolis to hang up their bridles in the temple of Athena, and 
to fetch thence some consecrated arms more suitable for that naval ser- 
vice for which they were about to abandon their ancient habits and privi- 
leges. The Senate of the Areopagus not only exerted its public authority 
in order to provide funds for the equipment of the fleet and the support of 
the poorer emigrants, but contributed to those objects by the private mu- 
nificence of its members. The fund was increased by the policy of The- 
mistocles. Under the pretext that the Gorgon's head had been removed 
from the statue of Athena, he dii'ected that the baggage of each departing 
citizen should be searched, and appropriated to the service of the state the 
private treasures which were about to be exported. 

§ 3. Wliile these things were passing at Athens, the Persian army was 
in full march towards the city. Xerxes was surprised to find that the 
Olympic games still deterred the Peloponnesians from opposing his prog- 
ress ; nor was his astonishment diminished on learning that the prize, 
which occasioned so much excitement and emulation, was a simple wi'eath 
of the wild-olive. Of the states which lay between Thermopylae and 
Attica, the Phocians alone refused to submit to the Persians. Under the 
conduct of the Thessalians, the Persian army poured into Phocis, but 
found only deserted towns ; several of Avhich, however, they plundered 
and destroyed. The same fate attended ThespiiB and Platgea, the only 
towns of Boeotia which dechned to acknowledge the conqueror. 

On his march towards Athens, Xerxes sent a detachment of his army 
to take and plunder Delphi. But this attempt proved unsuccessful. The 
god of the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world vindicated at once 
the majesty of his sanctuary and the truth of his predictions. He forbade 
the Delphians to remove the treasures which enriched and adorned his 
Bhrine, and encouraged by divine portents the handful of priests and citi- 



190 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX 

zens who ventured to remain and defend his temple. The sacred arms 
preserved in the inner cells, and which it was sacrilege to touch, were 
miraculously conveyed outside the door, as if the god himself interfered to 
arm his defenders. As the Persians climbed the rugged path, at the foot 
of Mount Parnassus, leading up to the shrine, and had already reached 
the temple of Athena Pronaea, thunder was heard to roll, and two crags, 
suddenly detaching themselves from the mountain, rolled down upon the 
Persians, and spread dismay and destruction in their ranks. Seized with 
a sudden panic, they turned and fled, pursued, as they said, by two war- 
riors of superhuman size and prowess, who had assisted the Delphians in 
defending their temple. The Delphians themselves confirmed the report, 
averring that the two warriors were the heroes Phylacus and Autonoiis. 
Herodotus, when he visited Delphi, saw in the sacred inclosure of Athena 
Prongea the identical crags which had crushed the Persians ; and near the 
spot may still be seen large blocks of stone which have rolled down from 
the mountain. 

§ 4. On arriving before Athens, Xerxes found the Acropolis occupied by 
a handful of desperate citizens, whom the Peisistratids in his suite in vain 
exhorted to surrender. The nature of the Acropolis might, indeed, have 
inspired them with reasonable hopes of successful resistance, had the dis- 
parity of force been less enormous. Rising abrupt and craggy to the 
height of 150 feet above the level of the town, its summit presents a space 
of about 1,000 feet in length, from east to west, and 500 in breadth, from 
north to south. On every side except the west it is nearly inaccessible, 
and in the few places where access seemed practicable, it was defended by 
an ancient fortification called the Pelasgic wall. The Persian army took 
up a position on the Areopagus (Mars' Hill), over against the northwest- 
ern side of the Acropolis, whence they endeavored to destroy the wooden 
fortification which had been erected, by shooting against them arrows fur- 
nished with burning tow. But even after the destruction of these barri- 
cades, the Athenians managed to keep their assailants at bay by rolling 
down huge stones upon them as they attempted to mount the western 
ascent. At length some of the besiegers ventured to climb up the precip- 
itous rock, on the northern side, by the cave of Aglaurus, where no guard 
was stationed. They gained the summit unperceived, thus taking the 
little garrison in the rear. Confusion and despair now seized upon the 
Athenians. Some threw themselves down from the rock, others took 
refuge in the inner temple ; while the Persian host, to whom the gates 
had been thrown open by their comrades, mounted to the attack, pillaged 
and burned the temples and houses on the Acropolis, and put its defenders 
to the sword. 

Thus was the oracle accomplished which had foretold that Athens should 
fall before the might of Persia. But in the very midst of her ashes and 
desolation, a trivial portent seemed to foreshadow the resurrection of her 



B. C. 480.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE GREEKS. 191 

power. The Athenians in the train of Xerxes, whilst sacrificing in the 
Acropolis, observed with astonishment that the sacred olive-tree, which 
grew in the temple of Athena, had, in the two days which had elapsed 
since the fire, thrown out a fresh shoot a cubit in length. 

About the same time that the army of Xerxes took possession of 
Athens, his fleet arrived in the bay of Phalerum. Its strength is not 
accurately known, but at the lowest estimate must have exceeded 1,000 
vessels. The combined Grecian fleet at Salamis consisted of 366 ships ; * 
a larger force than had assembled at Artemisium, yet far inferior to that 
of the Persians. Of these ships 200 were Athenian ; the remainder 
consisted of the contingents of the allies, among which that of the Corin- 
thians was the most numerous after the Athenian, namely, forty vessels. 

Xerxes went down to inspect his fleet, and held a council of war as to 
the expediency of an immediate attack upon the Greeks. The kings of 
Sidon and Tyre, together mth the other assembled potentates, probably 
with the view of flattering Xerxes, were for an immediate battle. One 
voice alone broke the unanimity of the meeting. Artemisia, queen of Hali- 
carnassus, in Caria, deprecated the policy of fighting in the narrow strait 
of Salamis, where the numerous force of Xerxes would be an encumbrance 
rather than a help. She urged that, if the army were marched towards 
Peloponnesus, the Peloponnesian ships would withdraw from the Grecian 
fleet, in order to protect their own homes. She is likewise represented as 
having drawn a comparison between the maritime skill of the Greeks and 
Persians, very little flattering to the latter. But these representations, 
though received with good temper, were disregarded by Xerxes, and 
orders were issued for an attack on the following morning. At the same 
time the army was commanded to march towards Peloponnesus. 

§ 5. At this critical juncture dissension reigned in the Grecian fleet. 
In the council of war which had been summoned by Eurybiades, Themis- 
tocles urged the assembled chiefs to remain at Salamis, and give battle to 
the Persians in the narrow straits, where the superior numbers of the 
Persians would be of less consequence. The Peloponnesian commanders, 
on the other hand, were strongly opposed to remaining in their present 
position. They were of opinion that the fleet should be removed to the 
Isthmus of Corinth, and thus be put in communication with their land 
forces. The news of the taking of Athens, which arrived during the de- 
bate, gave force to these counsels. The majority came to a vote in favor 
of retreat ; but the approach of night obliged them to remain till the fol- 
lowing morning. 

It was with gloomy thoughts that Themistocles retired from the council. 
Upon reaching his own ship, a friend named Mnesiphilus, to whom he 
communicated the decision, urged him to make one more attempt to detain 

* According to Herodotus ; but ^schylus reckons them at 310 only. 



192 HISTORX OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX 

the Peloponnesians. Late as it was, he immediately proceeded to the 
ship of Eurybiades, where, urging with more freedom, and in greater 
detail than he had been able to use in the council, all the arguments 
against the separation of the fleet, he succeeded in persuading Eurybiades 
to convoke another assembly. He also used all his efforts privately with 
the different commanders to induce them to alter their opinion. But he 
elicited nothing but anger and reproach. When the council met, the 
Peloponnesian commanders loudly expressed their dissatisfaction at seeing 
a debate reopened which they had deemed concluded. Adeimantus, 
especially, the Corinthian admiral, broke out into open rebukes and mena- 
ces. " Themistocles," he exclaimed, " those who rise at the public games 
before the signal are whipped." " True," replied Themistocles, " but they 
who lag behind it never win a crown." Another incident in this discus- 
sion has been immortalized by Plutarch. It is related by this writer that 
Eurybiades, incensed by the language of Themistocles, lifted up his stick 
to strike him, whereupon the Athenian exclaimed, " Strike, but hear 
me ! " * 

Themistocles repeated his arguments and entreaties, but without effect, 
Adeimantus, with unfeeling insolence, even denied his right to vote ; since, 
Athens being in the hands of the Persians, he represented no free Grecian 
city. Stung by this remark, Themistocles reminded the assembly that he 
was at the head of two hundred well-armed ships ; a force with which he 
could easily procure for himself a city, and even a better city than Cor- 
inth. Prophecies, he observed, had promised to Athens the town of Siris 
in Italy ; it only remained for the Athenians to sail thither and take pos- 
session of it. Meanwhile, let the assembly consider what the Grecian 
fleet would be without the Athenian contingent. 

Tills menace silenced his opponents. Eurybiades, half convinced before, 
hesitated no longer ; and, without taking the votes of the assembly, issued 
orders for the fleet to remain and fight at Salamis. The Peloponnesians 
obeyed, indeed, the orders of their commander. The following morning 
discovered them engaged in preparing their ships for action ; but with an 
evident reluctance, soon increased to open discontent by messages received 
from home. These represented the distress and terror of their country- 
men, engaged in fortifying the Isthmus against the overwhelming force of 
Xerxes. Of what use was it to attempt the defence of Attica, already in 
the hands of the Persians ? Surely it would be much better for the Pelo- 
ponnesian seamen to return and defend their native and yet unconquered 
country ; where, even if worsted at sea, they might transfer their services 
to the land. 

§ 6. Incited by these representations, the very men who had found 

* This memorable story, however, is not in accordance with the narrative of Herodotus, 
in which it is Adeimantus, and not Eurybiades, to whom Themistocles had given offence, 
and who opposes the Athenian with so much vehemence. 



B. C. 480.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE GREEKS. 193 

&ult with a second council now clamored for a third. It met, and wa? 
characterized by the same turbulence and the same dissensions as tha 
former councils. The malcontents, though representing only a small pro 
portion of the naval force, had a numerical superiority of votes ; and 
Themistocles, perceiving that the decision of the assembly would be 
against him, determined to effect his object by stratagem. Among his 
slaves was an Asiatic Greek named Sicinnus, whom he had intrusted 
with the education of his children ; a man of address and ability, and per- 
fectly acquainted with the Persian tongue. Themistocles secretly de- 
spatched this man with a message to Xerxes, representing the dissensions 
which prevailed in the Grecian fleet, and how easy a matter it would be 
to surround and vanquish an armament both small and disunited. The- 
mistocles himself was described by Sicinnus as favorable to the Persian 
cause ; nor, to judge from his subsequent conduct, might the wily Athe- 
nian, in the present desperate situation of affairs, have been altogether 
indisposed to stand favorably in the sight of Xerxes. However this may 
be, Xerxes, already well inclined to strike a blow, readily adopted the 
suggestion, and ordered his captains to close up the straits of Salamis at 
both ends. 

It has been already stated that the Persian fleet was stationed in the 
bay of Phalerum, a harbor on the Attic coast, a few mUes southeast of 
the entrance of the straits which divided the island of Salamis from Attica. 
This entrance, as well as that on the northwestern side, leading into the 
Bay of Eleusis, is exceedmgly narrow, being in paiis not more than a 
quarter of a mile in breadth. Towards the middle, however, it expands ; 
and on the side of Salamis forms a bay or harbor, on which the town of 
Salamis was situated, and where the Grecian fleet was stationed. During 
the night the fleet of Xerxes moved from Phalerum northwards along the 
coast, and took up a position on the Attic side of the straits, which they 
lined through their whole extent, wliile portions blocked up both the 
northern and southern outlets of the straits. 

Meanwhile, the debate of the Grecian leaders continued long after 
nightfall. Themistocles had employed every art to protract the discussion, 
in order to gain time for the effect of his stratagem ; and when at last the 
assembly broke up, it was only on the understanding that the debate should 
be resumed before daybreak. 

Scarcely had the council re-assembled, when Themistocles was sum- 
moned from it by a message that somebody wished to speak to him. It 
was Ai'isteides, who, in the sixth year of an unjust banishment, had re- 
turned to serve his ungrateful country, and to assist, but not to share, the 
triumph of a rival. His rival had, indeed, proposed, and his country had 
ratified, the revocation of the sentence ; though to an ordinary man the 
repentance might have seemed suspicious, and the atonement of little 
value, which recalled him to his native land, or, more properly speaking, 

25 



194 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX. 

which restored him to his exiled countrymen, only to share in their dan- 
gers and distresses. But no such reflections found a place in the mind of 
Aristeides. He was occupied only with his country's welfare, and his first 
address to Themistocles was that their ancient rivalry should for the future 
be exerted only in their country's cause. He then communicated the fact 
that the Grecian fleet was completely surrounded by that of the Persians ; 
and related that it was only by favor of the darkness that his own vessel 
had contrived to elude them. Themistocles, having thus learned the suc- 
cess of his stratagem, expressed his satisfaction, and desired Aristeides to 
communicate the news of their situation to the council, which would not 
be disposed to believe it from his own lips. But even from the lips of 
Aristeides such unwelcome intelligence found but little credit, tiU it was 
confirmed by the arrival of a Tenian ship, which had deserted from the 
enemy. 

§ 7. At length the day began to dawn which was to decide the fate of 
Greece. As the veil of night roUed gradually away, the Persian fleet was 
discovered stretching as far as the eye could reach along the coast of 
Attica. Its right wing, consisting of Phcenician and Cyprian vessels, was 
drawn up towards the Bay of Eleusis, whilst the lonians occupied the left, 
towards Peirgeus and the southern entrance of the straits. On the low and 
barren island of Psyttaleia, adjacent to that point, a detachment of choice 
Persian troops had been landed. As the Grecian fleet was concentrated 
in the harbor of the town of Salamis, it was thus surrounded, as it were, 
in a net by the Persians. Xerxes, who attributed the disasters at Arte- 
misium to his own absence, had caused a lofty throne to be erected upon 
one of the projecting declivities of Mount ^galeos, opposite th.e harbor of 
Salamis, whence he could survey the combat, and stimulate by his pres- 
ence the courage of his men ; whilst by his side stood scribes, prepared to 
record the names both of the daring and the backward. 

" A king sat on the rocky brow 

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
And ships, by thousands, lay below, 

And men in nations ; — all were his ! 
He counted them at break of day, — 
And when the sun set, where were they? " 

The Grecian commanders lost no time in preparing to meet their mul- 
titudinous opponents. The Athenians were posted in the left wing, and 
consequently opposed to the Phoenicians on the Persian right. The Lace- 
daemonians and the other Peloponnesians took their station on the right, 
and the ^ginetans and Eubceans in the centre. Animated by the 
harangues of Themistocles and the other leaders, the Greek seamen em- 
barked with alacrity, encouraging one another to deliver their country 
their wives and children, and the temples of their gods, from the grasp of 
the barbarians. Just at this juncture a favorable omen seemed to prom- 



B. C. 480.] 



BATTLE OF SALA.MIS. 



195 



ise them success. When Eurybiades gave the order for the fleet to re- 
main and fight at Salamis, a trireme had been despatched to jEgina to in- 
voke the assistance of JEacus, and the ^acid heroes Talamon and Aias 
(Ajax). As the Greeks were on the point of embarking, the trireme re- 
turned from the mission just in time to take her place in the line of battle. 



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§ 8. As the trumpets sounded, the Greeks rowed forward to the attack, 
hurling into the still morning air the loud war paean, reverberated shrilly 
from the cliffs of Salamis, and not unanswered by the Persians. But sud- 
denly a panic appeared to seize the Grecian oarsmen. They paused, — 



196 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX. 

backed astern, — and some of the rearward vessels even struck the ground 
at Salamis. At this critical juncture a supernatural portent is said to have 
reanimated the drooping courage of the Greeks. A female figure was 
seen to hover over the fleet, uttering loud reproaches at their flight. Re- 
animated by the vision, the Greeks again rowed forward to the attack. 
History has preserved to us but few details of the engagement, which, 
indeed, soon became a scene of confusion too intricate to be accurately 
observed ; but the names of those who first grappled with the enemy have 
not been left unrecorded. The Athenian captains, Ameinias and Lycome- 
des, the former a brother of the poet -^schylus, were the first to bring 
their ships into action ; Democi'itus, a Naxian, was the third. The Per- 
sian fleet, with the exception of some of the Ionic contingents, appears to 
have fought with alacrity and courage. But the very numbers on which 
they so confidently relied proved one of the chief causes of their defeat. 
They had neither concert in action, nor space to manoeuvre ; and the confu- 
sion was augmented by the mistrust with which the motley nations compos- 
ing the Persian armament regarded one another. Too crowded either to 
advance or to retreat, their oars broken or impeded by collision with one 
another, their fleet lay like an inert and lifeless mass upon the water, and 
fell an easy prey to the Greeks. A single incident will illustrate the 
terror and confusion which reigned among the Persians. Artemisia^ 
although, as we have related, averse to giving battle, distinguished herself 
in it by deeds of daring bravery. At length she turned and fled, pursued 
by the Athenian trierarch, Ameinias. Full in her course lay the vessel of 
the Carian prince, Damosithymus of Calyndus. Instead of avoiding, she 
struck and sunk it, sending her countryman and all his crew to the bot- 
tom. Ameinias, believing from this act that she was a deserter from the 
Persian cause, suffered her to escape. Xerxes, who from his lofty throne 
beheld the feat of the Halicarnassian queen, but who imagined that the 
sunken ship belonged to the Greeks, was filled with admiration at hei 
courage, and is said to have exclaimed, " My men are become women^ 
my women men ! " 

§ 9. The number of ships destroyed and sunk is stated at forty on the 
side of the Greeks, and two hundred on that of the Persians, exclusive of 
those which were captured with all their crews. Besides this loss at sea, 
Aristeides succeeded in inflicting on the Persians another on land. It has 
been already stated, that some chosen Persian troops had been landed at 
Psyttaleia, in order to assist such Persian ships or destroy such Grecian 
ships as might be forced upon the island. "When the rout of the Persian 
fleet was completed, Aristeides landed on the island with a body of Hop- 
lit es, defeated the Persians, and cut them to pieces to a man.* 



* The poet ^schylus, who fought in this battle, as well as at Marathon, shouldi be 
looked upon as one of the principal authorities. In " The Persians," the messenger gives to 



B. C. 480.] BATTLE OF SALAMIS. IfllT 

Boundless were the rage and vexation of Xerxes, as he contemplated 
the flight and destruction of his fleet. Some Phoenician crews, which were 
unlucky enough to be forced ashore close at the despot's feet, felt the full 
weight of his displeasure. In vain they sought to throw the blame of the 
defeat on the Ionic Greeks serving under the Persian flag. Xerxes, who, 
besides the feat of Artemisia, had observed a very daring act of valor per- 
formed by a Samothracian vessel, treated the Phoenicians as dastardly 
calumniators, and ordered them to be beheaded. 

Notwithstanding this signal defeat and loss, the Persian fleet was still 
formidable by its numbers, whilst their land force had suffered hardly any 
loss. The Greeks themselves did not regard the victory as decisive, and 
prepared to renew the combat. But from this necessity they were relieved 
by the pusillanimity of Xerxes. Passing at once from overweening con- 
Queen ,Atossa a very animated description. I take the passage from Professor Biackie'a 
excellent translation. 

" Some evil god, or an avenging spirit, 
Began the fray. From the Athenian fleet 
There came a Greek, and thus thy son bespoke: 
* Soon as the gloom of night shall fall, the Greeks 
No more will wait, but, rushing to their oars, 
Each man will seek his safety where he may, 
By secret flight.' This Xerxes heard, but knew not 
The guile of Greece, nor yet the jealous gods, 
And to his captains straightway gave command 
That, when the sun withdrew his burning beams 
And darkness filled the temple of the sky, 
In triple lines their ships they should dispose. 
Each wave-plashed outlet guarding, fencing round 
The isle of Ajax surely. Should the Greeks 
Deceive this guard, or with their ships escape 
In secret fliglit, each captain with his head 
Should pay for his remissness. These commands 
With lofty heart, thj' son gave forth, nor thought 
What harm the gods were weaving. They obeyed. 
Each man prepared his supper, and the sailors 
Bound the lithe oar to its familiar block. 
Then, when the sun his shining glory paled, 
And night swooped down, each master of the oar, 
Each marshaller of arms, embarked; and then 
Line called on line to take its ordered place. 
All night they cruised, and, with a moving belt, 
Prisoned the frith, till day gan peep, and still 
No stealthy Greek the expected flight essayed. 
, But when at length the snowy-steeded day 

Burst o'er the main, all beautiful to see. 
First from the Greeks a tuneful shout uprose, 
Well-omened, and, with replication loud, 
Leaped the blithe echo from the rocky shore. 
Fear seized the Persian host, no longer tricked 
By vain opinion; not like wavering flight 
Billowed the solemn paean of the Greeks, 
But like the shout of men to battle urging, 



198 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XIX, 

fidence to unreasonable distrust, the Persian monarch became anxiously 
solicitous even about his own personal safety. He no longer relied on the 
capability of his ships to protect his retreat over the Hellespont, especially 
as his own conduct had alienated a considerable part of the fleet. The 
Phoenicians, alarmed by the threats wliich rage and fear caused Xerxes to 
utter against them, stole away in the night, and sailed homewards. The 
whole care of the Persian monarch was now centred on securing his 
retreat by land. The best troops were disembarked from the ships, and 
marched towards the Hellespont, in order to secure the bridge, whilst the 
fleet itself was ordered to leave Phalerum and make for Asia. 

These dispositions of Xerxes were prompted by Mardonius. As the 
advisei- of the expedition, Mardonius felt all the danger of responsibility 
for its failure, especially if the personal safety of his sovereign should be 

With lusty cheer. Then the fierce trumpet's voice 
Blazed o'er the main; aiid on the salt sea flood 
Forthwith the oars with measured plash descended, 
And all their lines, with dexterous speed displayed, 
Stood with opposing front. The right wing first. 
Then the whole fleer, bore down, and straight uprose 
A mighty shout: ' Sons of the Greeks, advance! 

YOUK COUNTRY FUEE, YOUK CHILDREN FREE, YOUR WIVESJ 
The ALTARS OF YOUR NATIVE GODS DELIVER, 

And your ancestral tombs, — all 's now at stake!' 

A Hke salute from our whole line back rolled 

In Persian speech. Nor more delay, but straight 

Trireme on trireme, brazen beak on beak 

Dashed furious. A Greek sliip led on the attack, 

And from the prow of a Phrenician struck 

The figure-head : and now the grapple closed 

Of each ship with his adverse desperate. 

At first tlie main line of the Persian fleet 

Stood the harsh shock: but soon their multitude 

Became their ruin: in the narrow frith 

They might not use their strength, and, jammed together, 

Their ships with brazen beaks did bite each other. 

And shattered their own oars. Meanwhile the Greeks 

Stroke after stroke dealt dexterous all around, 

Till our ships showed their keels, and the blue sea 

Was seen no more, with multitude of ships 

And corpses covered. All the shores were strewn, 

And the rough rocks, with dead : till, in the end, 

Each ship in the barbaric host, that yet 

Had oars, in most disordered flight rowed off. 

As men that fish for tunnies, so the Greeks, 

With broken booms, and fragments of the wreck. 

Struck our snared men, and hacked them, that the sea 

With wail and moaning was possessed around. 

Till black-eyed Night shot darkness o'er the fray. 

These ills thou hearest: to rehearse the whole. 

Ten days were few; but this, my queen, believe, 

No day yet shone on earth whose brightness looked 

On such a tale of death." — Ed. 



B. C. 480.] RETREAT OP XERXES. 199 

at all endangered. With adroit flattery he consulted at once the fears and 
the vanity of Xerxes, and his own personal interests. He represented to 
his master that the defeat, after all, was but slight, and had fallen entirely 
upon the foreign auxiliaries ; that having attained one of the great objects 
of the expedition by the capture of Athens, he might now retire with 
honor, and even with glory ; and that, for the rest, he (Mardonius) would 
undertake to complete the conquest of Greece with three hundred thousand 
men. Xerxes readily listened to tliis advice, which accorded so well with 
his own inclinations, and which was supported by his courtiers, as well 
as by Queen Artemisia. 

§ 10. When the Gi'eeks learned that the Persian fleet had left Pha- 
lerum, they immediately sailed in pursuit of it. Themistocles and the 
Athenians are represented, but probably on no sufficient ground, as 
anxious to push on to the Hellespont, and cut off" the retreat of the Per- 
sians, and as having been restrained only by the more prudent counsels of 
Eurybiades and the Peloponnesians. The moment was chosen by The- 
mistocles to send a second message to Xerxes, of a much more questionable 
character than the first. Sicinnus was again despatched to inform the 
Persian monarch that Themistocles, out of personal friendship for him, had 
restrained the Greeks from destroying the bridge over the Hellespont, and 
thus cutting off his retreat. In this communication it is impossible to 
believe that Themistocles can have had anything but his own personal 
interest in view. He was well aware that the Persian cause was far from 
desperate ; and even if the Greeks should prove victorious in the end, he 
may have been anxious to secure a safe retreat for himself, if he should 
be detected in his guilty practices. 

The Greeks pursued the Persian fleet as far as the island of Andros, 
but without success. To punish those islands which had sided with 
Xerxes was a natural and justifiable act, which the large naval force 
under the command of Themistocles enabled him to execute ; but he 
abused the same means in order to gratify his private rapacity. The 
Andrians, indeed, were too poor to be robbed ; and though Themistocles 
threatened them with two great gods, — Persuasion and Necessity, — they 
found themselves protected, as they said, by two others equally efficient, 
— Poverty and Helplessness. But in other quarters he succeeded better. 
From Carystus, Paros, and other places, he privately extorted bribes, by 
engaging to preserve them from attack ; and after a short time employed 
in the vain attempt to wring something from Andros, the Grecian fleet 
returned to Salamis. 

§ 11. Meanwhile Xerxes pursued his homeward march through Boeotia 
into Thessaly. In the latter country IVIardonius selected the forces with 
which he proposed to conclude the war, consisting chiefly of Persians, 
Medes, Sacae, and Bactrians, to the number of three hundred thousand 
men. But as autumn was now approaching, and as sixty thousand of 



200 HISTOKT OF GREECE. [Chap. YTT - 

these troops were to escort the march of Xerxes as far as the Hellespont, 
Mardonius resolved to postpone all further operations till the spring. 

After forty-five days' march from Attica, Xerxes again reached the 
shores of the Hellespont, with a force greatly diminished by famine and 
pestilence. The sufferings of his army were exaggerated by JEschylus, 
and by later poets and moralists, who delighted in heightening the con- 
trast between the proud magnificence of the monarch's advance, and the 
ignominious humiliation of his retreat. Many of these statements cannot 
be accepted as historical facts ; although there can be no doubt that great 
numbers perished from want of provisions, and the. diseases which always 
follow in the path of famine. On the Hellespont Xerxes found his fleet, 
but the bridge had been washed away by storms. Landed on the shores 
of Asia, the Persian army at length obtained abundance of provisions, and 
contracted new maladies by the sudden change from privation to excess. 
Thus terminated this mighty but unsuccessful expedition. Two thousand 
years later, stiU more barbarous Eastern hordes were destined to find a 
settlement on the fair shores of Greece. But Greece had then worked 
out her appointed task, and had transmitted her arts, her literature, and 
her civihzation to the nations of Western Europe.* 

§ 12. Among the Greeks nothing now remained to be done but to cele 
brate their victory after the national fashion by the distribution of rewards 
To the -3j^ginetans was adjudged the chief prize for valor, whilst the 
Athenians carried off the second. Amongst individual combatants, the 
-^ginetan, Polycritus, and the Athenians, Eumenes and Ameinias, ob- 
tained the first rank. The deities also received their share of honor. 
Three Phoenician triremes were dedicated respectively to Athena at 
Sunium, to Poseidon at the Corinthian Isthmus, and to the Salaminian 
hero, Aias. The shrine of the Delphian Apollo was also still further 
enriched by the offerings of grateful superstition. 

Having distributed the rewards of valor, the Greek commanders 

* The maintenance of the Hellenic spirit, even under the four centuries of Turkish mis- 
rule, is an extraordinary phenomenon in history. The revival of Greek nationality, hy 
which the Turkish yoke was thrown off the necks of a portion of the Hellenic race, was a 
glorious proof of the indestructible spirit of liberty, transmitted from the classic ages. The 
political progress made by the numerically insignificant kingdom of Hellas, since the 
desolating war of the revolution, is a brilliant proof of the civic genius of the people; and 
the present condition of education, as exhibited by the schools, gymnasia, and the Univer- 
sity of Otho at Athens, is such as to excite the admiration of the traveller, who has the 
smallest sympathy with the struggles of an illustrious race to vindicate their hereditary 
title to intellectual distinction. But for the illiberal and unwise policy of the three great 
powers, France, England, and Russia, who settled the boundaries of the kingdom of Hel- 
las so as to exclude the important provinces of Thessaly, Epeirus, Macedonia, &c., and 
the most valuable of the islands, — throwing back under the wretched government of 
Turkey three fourths of the Gi-eek population of Greece, and surrendering the noble island 
of Crete to the tender mercies of the Pacha of Egypt, — that classic land might at thia 
moment, have been one of the most prosperous, intelligent, and enterprising countries iR 
Europe, and the present dangerous crisis in Eastern affairs perhaps wholly averted. — Ed. 



B. C. 480.] DEFEAT OP THE Ci^RTHAGINIANS. 201 

undertook the more difficult task of assigning the prizes of wisdom and 
conduct. Upon the altar of Poseidon, at the Isthmus of Corinth, whither 
the Grecian fleet had now repaired, each chief deposited a ticket inscribed 
with two names, of those whom he considered entitled to the first and 
second prizes. But in this adjudication vanity and self-love defeated 
their oAvn objects. Each commander had put down his own name for the 
first prize ; for the second, a great majority preponderated in favor of 
Themistocles. But since the first prize thus remained undecided, and as 
the second could not, consequently, be adjudicated, the Athenian leader 
reaped no benefit from these votes. From the Spartans, however, whom 
he shortly afterwards visited, he received the honors due to his merit. A 
crown of olive similar to that which rewarded their own commander, 
Eurybiades, was conferred upon him, together with one of the most splen- 
did chariots which the city could produce ; and on his departure the three 
hundred Hippeis, or knights, the youth and the flower of the Lacedasmo- 
nian militia, accompanied him as a guard of honor as far as Tegea. In 
fact, the honors heaped upon Themistocles by the haughty Spartans were 
so extraordinary, as to excite, it is said, the jealousy of the Athenians 
against their distinguished countryman. 

§ 13. On the very same day on which the Persians were defeated at 
Salamis, another portion of the Hellenic race, the Sicilian Greeks, also 
obtained a victory over an immense barbarian foi'ce. There is reason to 
believe that the invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians was concerted 
with Xerxes, and that the simultaneous attack on two distinct Grecian 
peoples, by two immense armaments, was not merely the result of chance. 
It was, however, in the internal affairs of Sicily that the Carthaginians 
sought the pretext and the opportunity for their invasion. About the year 
481 B. c, Theron, despot of Agrigentum, a relative of Gelon's, the power- 
ful ruler of Syracuse, expelled Terillus from Himera, and took possession 
of that town. Terillus, backed by some Sicihan cities which formed a 
kind of Carthaginian party, applied to the Carthaginians to restore him. 
The Carthaginians complied with the invitation ; and in the year 480 b. c. 
Hamilcar landed at Panormus with a force composed of various nations, 
which is said to have amounted to the enormous sum of three hundred 
thousand men. Having drawn up his vessels on the beach, and protected 
them with a rampart, Hamilcar proceeded to besiege the Himeraeans, who 
on their part prepared for an obstinate defence. At the instance of The- 
ron, Gelon marched to the relief of the town with fifty thousand foot 
and five thousand horse. An obstinate and bloody engagement ensued, 
which, by a stratagem of Gelon's, was at length determined in his favor 
The ships of the Carthaginians were fired, and Hamilcar himself slain. 
According to the statement of Diodorus, one hundred and fifty thousand 
Carthaginians fell in the engagement, while the greater part of the remain 
der surrendered at discretion, twenty ships alone escaping with a few fugi 
26 



202 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XIX, 

tives. This account may justly be regarded as an exaggeration ; yet it 
cannot be doubted that the victory was a decisive one, and the number 
very great of the prisoners and slain. 

Thus were the arms of Greece victorious on all sides, and the outposts 
of Europe maintained against the incursions of the semi-barbarous hordes 
of Asia and Africa. In Sicily, Greek taste made the sinews of the pris- 
oners subserve the purposes 'of art ; and many of the public structures 
which adorned and distinguished Agrigentum rose by the labor of the 
captive Carthaginians. 



B. C. 479.] POSITION OF THE PERSIAN AND GREEK FLEETS. 



203 




Temple of Nik6 Apteros (the Wingless Victory), on the Acropolis at Athens, restored 



CHAPTER XX. 



BATTLES OF PLAT^A AND MYCALE. 



1 1. Position of the Persian and Greek Fleets. § 2. Preparations of Mardonins for tha 
Campaign. § 3. He solicits the Athenians to join him. Faithlessness of the Spartans, 
§ 4. Mardonius occupies Athens. Athenian Embassy to Sparta. March of the Spartan 
Army. §5. Mardonius retires into Bceotia: followed by the Grecian Army. Skirmishes. 
§ 6. The Greeks descend into the Plahi. Manoeuvres of the two Armies. § 7. Alexan 
der Kino- of Macedon, visits the Grecian Camp. The Greeks resolve to change their 
Ground: their disorderly Retreat. § 8. Battle of Platsea. Defeat of the Persians. 
§ 9. Division of the Spoil. ^ 10. Reduction of Thebes, and Execution of the Theban 
Leaders. ^ 11. Death of Aristodemus. ^ 12. League of Platsea. Religious Ceremonies. 
\ 13. Battle of Mycale. Defeat of the Persians. § 14. Liberation of the Greek Islands. 
§ 15. Siege and Capture of Sestos. 

§ 1. The remnant of the Persian fleet, after conveying Xerxes and his 
army across the Hellespont, wintered at Cyme and Samos ; and early in 
the ensuing spring, the whole armament, to the number of about four 
hundred vessels, reassembled at the latter island. This movement was 
adopted in order to keep a watch over Ionia, which showed symi)toins of 
an inclination to revolt, and not with any design of attacking the Grecian 
fleet. The latter, consisting of about one hundred and ten ships, under 
the command of the Spartan king, Leotychides, assembled in the spi-ing at 
^gina. From this station it advanced as far eastward as Delos ; but the 
Ionian envoys despatched to the Peloponnesians, with promises tliat the 
lonians would revolt from Persia as soon as the Greek fleet appeared off 
their coast, could not prevail upon Leotychides to venture an attack upon 
the Persians. 



204 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XX.. 

§ 2. The disastrous retreat of Xerxes had not much shaken the fidelity 
of his Grecian allies. Potidasa, indeed, and the other towns on the isth- 
mus of Pallene, declared themselves independent ; whilst symptoms of 
disaffection were also visible among the Phocians ; but the more impor- 
tant allies of Persia, the Macedonians, the Thessalians, and especially the 
Boeotians, were still disposed to co-operate vigorously with Mardonius. 
That general prepared to open the campaign in the spring. As a pre- 
liminary measure, adopted probably with the view of flattering the religious 
prejudices of his Gi'eek allies, he consulted some of the most celebrated 
oracles in Boeotia and Phocis respecting the issue of the war. He was 
not without hopes of inducing the Athenians to join the Persian alliance ; 
and, in order to facilitate such a step, it was pretended that the oracles 
had foretold the approach of the time when the Athenians, united with 
the Persians, should expel the Dorians from Peloponnesus. 

§ 3. The influence of superstition was aided by the intrigues of diplo- 
macy. Alexander, king of Macedon, was despatched to conciliate the 
Athenians, now partially re-established in their dilapidated city. His 
offers on the part of the Persians were of the most seductive kind ; the 
reparation of all damage, the friendship of the Great King, and a consid- 
erable extension of territory : the whole backed by the pressing instances 
of Alexander himself, and enforced by a vivid picture of the exposed and 
helpless situation of Attica. 

The temptation was certainly strong. On the one hand, ruined homes 
and empty granaries, the result of the last campaign ; the first shock and 
severest brunt of the war to be sustained by Attica, as the outpost of 
Southern Hellas, and this for lukewarm and selfish allies, to whose negli- 
gence and breach of faith the Athenians chiefly owed their present calami- 
ties : on the other hand, their city restored, their starving population fed, 
the horrors of war averted, and only that more agreeable part of it adopted 
which would consist in accompanying and aiding an overwhelming force 
in a career of almost certain victory. The Lacedasmonians were quite 
alive to the exigencies of the situation, so far, at least, as it concerned their 
own safety. They also had sent envoys to counteract the seductions of 
Alexander, and to tender relief to the distressed population of Athens. The 
answer of the Athenians was magnanimous and dignified. They dismissed 
Alexander with a positive refusal, and even with something like a threat 
of personal violence in case he should again be the bearer of such propo- 
sals ; whilst to the Lacedaemonians they protested that no temptations, how- 
ever great, should ever induce them to desert the common cause of Greece 
and freedom. In return for this disinterested conduct, all they asked was 
that a Peloponnesian army should be sent into Boeotia for the defence 
of the Attic frontier ; a request which the Spartan envoys promised to 
fulfil. 

No sooner, however, had they returned to their own country than this 



B. C. 479.] MARDONIUS OCCUPIES ATHENS. 205 

promise was completely forgotten. As on the former occasion, tlie Lace- 
dsemonians covered their selfishness and indifference beneath the hypo- 
critical garb of religion. The omens were unfavorable ; the sun had been 
eclipsed at the moment when Cleombrotus, the Spartan king, was consult 
ing the gods respecting the expedition; and, besides this, they were 
engaged in celebrating the festival of the Hyacinthia. But no omens nor 
festivals had prevented them from resuming with unremitting dihgence 
the labor of fortifying the Isthmus, and the walls and battlements were 
now rapidly advancing towards completion. 

§ 4. When Mardonius was informed that the Athenians had rejected 
his proposal, he immediately marched against Athens, accompanied by aU 
his Grecian allies ; and in May or June, b. c. 479, about ten months after 
the retreat of Xerxes, the Persians again occupied that city. With feel- 
ings of bitter indignation against their faithless allies, the Athenians saw 
themselves once more compelled to remove to Salamis. But even in this 
depressed condition, the naval force of the Athenians still rendered them 
formidable ; and Mardonius took advantage of his situation to endeavor 
once more to win them to his alliance. Through a Hellespontine Greek, 
the same favorable conditions were again offered to them, but were again 
refused. One voice alone, that of the senator Lycidas, broke the una- 
nimity of the assembly. But his opposition cost him his life. He and his 
family were stoned to death by the excited populace. 

In this desperate condition the Athenians sent ambassadors to the Spar- 
tans to remonstrate against their breach of faith, and to implore them, 
before it was too late, to come forwards in the common cause of Greece. 
The ambassadors were also instructed to intimate that necessity might at 
length compel the Athenians to hsten to the proposals of the enemy. 
This message, however, was very coolly received by the Lacedaemonians. 
For ten days no answer whatever was returned ; and it can scarcely be 
doubted that the reply, which they at last thought fit to make, would have 
been a negative, but for a piece of advice which opened their eyes to the 
consequences of their selfish policy. Chileos, a Tegean, a man whose wis- 
dom they revered, and whom they consulted on this occasion, pointed out 
to them that their fortifications at the isthmus would prove of no avail in 
case the Athenians allied themselves to the Persians, and thus, by means 
of their fleet, opened a way into the heart of Peloponnesus. It is strange 
that the Lacedaemonians should have needed this admonition, wliich seems 
obvious enough ; but selfishness is proverbially blind. 

The conduct of the Spartans was as prompt as their change of resolution 
had been sudden. That very night five thousand citizens, each attended by 
seven Helots, were despatched to tlie frontiers ; and these were shortly fol- 
lowed by five thousand Lacedjemonian Perioeci, each attended by one light- 
armed Helot. Never before had the Spartans sent so large a force into 
the field. Their example was followed by other Peloponnesian cities ; and 



206 HISTORY OF GREECE. tCHAP. XX. 

the Athenian envoys returned to Salarais with the joyful news that a 
large army was preparing to march against the enemy, under the com- 
mand of Pausanias, who acted as regent for Pleistarchus, the infant son of 
Leonidas. 

§ 0. Mardonius, on learning the approach of the Lacedaemonians, 
abandoned Attica, and proceeded by the pass of Decelea across Mount 
Parnes into Boeotia, a country more adapted to the operations of the 
cavalry, in which his strength principally lay. Whilst he still entertained 
a hope that the Athenians might be induced to join his arms, he had 
refrained from committing any depredations on their territory ; but find- 
ing this expectation vain, he employed the last days of his stay in 
burning and devastating all that had been spared by the army of Xerxes. 
After crossing the frontiers of Boeotia, and marching a day or two along 
the Asopus, he finally took up a position on the left bank of that river, and 
not far from the town of Platsea. Here he caused a camp to be con- 
structed of ten furlongs square, and fortified with barricades and towers. 
The situation was well selected, since he had the friendly and well-fortified 
city of Thebes in his rear, and was thus in no danger of falling short of 
provisions. Yet the disposition of his army was far from being sanguine. 
With the exception of the Thebans and Boeotians, his Grecian allies were 
become lukewarm or wavering ; and even among the Persians themselves, 
the disastrous flight of their monarch in the preceding year had naturally 
damped all hopes of the successful issue of a campaign which was now to 
be conducted with far inferior forces. 

Meanwhile, the Lacedaemonian force collected at the Isthmus was 
receiving reinforcements from the various states of Peloponnesus. On its 
march through Megara it was joined by 3,000 Megarians ; and at Eleusis 
received its final accession of 8,000 Athenian and 600 Plataean Hoplites, 
who had crossed over from Salamis under the command of Aristeides. 
The Grecian army now consisted of 38,700 heavy-armed men, attended 
by Helots and light-armed troops to the number of nearly 70,000 ; and, 
together with 1,800 badly armed Thespians, formed a gi-and total of 
about 110,000 men. There were, however, no cavalry, and but very 
few bowmen. 

Having consulted the gods by sacrifices, which proved of a favorable 
nature, the Grecian army broke up from Eleusis, and directed its march 
over the ridge of Cithseron. On descending its northern side, the Greeks 
came in sight of the Persian army drawn up in the valley of the Asopus. 
Pausanias, not caring to expose his troops to the attacks of the Persian 
cavalry on the plain, halted them on the slopes of the mountain, near 
Erythrge, where the ground was rugged and uneven. (See Plan, First 
Position.) This position did not, however, altogether preserve them. 
Skilled in the use of the bow and of the javelin, the Persian horsemen, 
under the command of Masistius, repeatedly charged the Greeks, harass- 



B. C. 479.] 



BATTLE OF PLAT^A. 



207 



ing them with flights of missiles, and taunting them with cowardice for not 
venturing down into the plain. The Megarians, especially, suffered 
severely, until rescued by a body of three hundred chosen Athenians, who 
succeeded in repulsing the Persian cavalry, and killing their leader, Masis- 
tius, a man tall in stature and of distinguished bravery. The Gi eeks 
celebrated their triumph by parading the corpse through the army m a 
■eart. 




%.cnii^^°'' 



a Persians. 

6. Athenians. 

e Lacedaemonians. 

d. Various Greek allies. 



Battle of PlataBa. (From Grote's Greece.) 
I. First position occupied by 

the opposing armies. 
n. Second Position. 
ni. Third Position. 



A. Road from Platsea to Thebes. 

B. Road from Megara to Thebes. 

C. Persian Camp. 

D. Erythrae. 

E. Hysiae. 



§ 6. This success encouraged Pausanias to quit the high ground and 
take up a position on the plain. Defiling from Erythrae in a westerly 
direction, and marching by Hysiae, he formed his army in a line on the 
right bank of the Asopus. In this arrangement, the right wing, which 
extended to the fountain Gargaphia, was conceded, as the post of honor, 
to the Lacedeemonians ; the occupation of the left, near the grove of the 
hero Androcrates, was disputed between the Tegeans and Athenians. 
The matter was referred to the whole body of the Lacedaemonian troops, 
vsrho by acclamation declared the Athenians entitled to the preference. 



208 HISTORY OF GREECE. , [Chap. XX. 

On perceiving that the Greeks had changed their position, Mardonius 
drew up his army opposite to them, on the other side of the Asopus. 
(See Plan, Second Position.) He himself, with the Persians and Medes, 
the flower of his army, took his post in the left wing, facing the Lacedse- 
monians on the Grecian right ; whilst the Greeks and Macedonians in the 
Persian service, to the number, probably, of fifty thousand, were opposed 
to the Athenians on the left. The centre of Mardonius was composed 
of Bactrians, Indians, SacJB, and other Asiatics, and Egyptians ; and his 
whole force probably amounted to about three hundred thousand men. 

But though the armies were thus in presence, 6;ach was reluctant to 
commence the attack. The soothsayers on both sides, whose responses 
were probably dictated by the feeling prevalent among the commanders, 
declared that the sacrifices were unfavorable for any aggressive move- 
ment. For eight days the armies remained inactive, except that the Per- 
sians annoyed the Greeks at a distance with their missiles, and altogi.'thcr 
prevented them from watering at the Asopus. On the eighth day Mar- 
donius, at the suggestion of the Theban leader, Timagenidas, employed his 
cavalry in cutting off the supplies of the Greeks, and captured a train of 
five hundred beasts of burden, together with their escort, as they were 
defiling through one of the passes of Cithferon. Artabazus, the second in 
command, advised Mardonius to continue this policy of harassing and 
wearing out the Greeks, without risking a general engagement ; and also 
to endeavor, by means of bribes, to corrupt and disunite them. That this 
latter step was feasible appears from what actually occurred among the 
Athenians. Several of the wealthier Hoplites serving in their ranks 
entered into a conspiracy to establish at Athens, under Persian supremacy, 
an oligarchy resembling that at Thebes. Fortunately, however, the plot 
was discovered and repressed by Aristeides. But Mardonius was too 
impatient to await the success of such measures, which he considered as ' 
an imputation on the Persian arms ; and, overruling the opinions of Arta- 
bazus and the rest of liis officers, gave orders to prepare for a general 
attack. 

§ 7. On the night after Mardonius had taken. this resolution, Alexander, 
king of Macedon, leaving the Persian camp by stealth, rode up to the 
Athenian outposts, and, desiring to speak with Aristeides and the other 
generals, informed them of the intended attack on the morrow. " I risk 
my life," he observed, " in conveying this intelligence ; but I too am a 
Greek by descent, and with sorrow should I see Hellas enslaved by the 
Persians." 

Aristeides immediately communicated this news to Pausanias. On 
hearing it, the latter made a proposal savoring but little of the tradition- 
ary Spartan valor ; namely, that the Athenians, who had had experience 
of the Persian mode of fighting, should change places with the Lacedae- 
monians in the line. The Athenians readily assented to this arrangement 



B. C. 479.] BATTLE OF PLAT^A. 209 

Mardonius, however, on perceiving the change which had been made, 
effected a corresponding one in his own line. Hereupon Pausanias 
marched back to the Grecian right, and was again followed by Mardo- 
nius ; so that the two armies remained in their original position. 

Neither side, however, was inclined to venture a general attack. The 
fighting was confined to the Persian cavalry, which the Greeks had no 
adequate means of repelling. For some portion of the day it obtained 
possession of the fountain of Gargaphia, the only source from which the 
Greeks could procure theii' water, and succeeded in choking it up. It 
also intercepted the convoys of provisions proceeding to the Grecian 
camp. Under these circumstances, finding the ground untenable, Pau- 
sanias summoned a council of war, in which it was resolved to retreat dur- 
ing the night to a place called the Island, about ten furlongs in the rear 
of their present position, and half-way between it and the town of Platgea. 
The spot selected, improperly called an island, was in fact a piece of 
ground about three furlongs in breadth, comprised between two branches 
of the river Oeroe, which, rising from distinct sources in Cithajron, and 
running for some space nearly parallel with one another, at length unite, 
and flow in a westerly direction into the Gulf of Corinth. The nature of 
the ground would thus afford to the Greeks both abundance of water and 
protection from the enemy's cavalry. 

Tlie retreat, however, though for so short a distance, was effected in 
disorder and confusion. The Greek centre, chiefly composed of Megari- 
ans and Corinthians, instead of taking up a position on the Island, as com- 
manded by Pausanias, did not halt till they reached the town of Plataga, 
where they formed in front of the Herseum on high ground, and protected 
by buildings. (See Plan, Third Position.) Some time after their depart- 
ure Pausanias commanded the right wing, which, as we have said, was 
composed of Lacedaemonians, to follow. But his orders were disputed by 
one of his captains, Amompharetus, a leader of one of the lochi, who had 
not been present at the council of war, and who, considering this retrograde 
movement as a retreat derogatory to Spartan honor, obstinately refused to 
stir from his post. Meanwhile, the Athenians, — not unnaturally distrust- 
ful of the Spartans, — before they broke ground themselves, despatched a 
mounted messenger to ascertain whether the right wing was really pre- 
paring to march. The messenger found the Spartan troops in their 
former position, and Pausanias, together with the other generals, engaged 
in -a warm dispute with the refractory captain. No threats of being left 
alone could induce him to move ; and when reminded that the order for 
retreat had been resolved upon in a council of war, he took up a huge 
rock, and casting it at the feet of Pausanias, exclaimed, "With this 
pebble I give my vote not to fly from the foreigners." 

Meantime, the day began to dawn : a little longer delay and retreat 
would become impossible. Pausanias resolved to abandon Amomphare- 
27 



210 HISTOKT or GREECE. [Chap. XX. 

tus and his lochus to their fate, should he really prove so obstinate as to 
stand his ground after the departure of the rest of the army. The order 
to march was given. The slant rays of the rising sun gleamed on the tall 
and bristling spears of the Lacedgemonian columns as they slowly ascended 
the hills which separated them from the Island. The Athenians, posted 
more towards the east, and who were to arrive at the appointed spot by 
turning the hills, began their march at the same time. Amompharetus 
was not so madly obstinate as to await alone the approach of the Persians. 
Finding that his comrades had really departed, he gave orders to follow, 
and overtook them at their first halt. 

§ 8. Mardonius beheld with astonishment and disdain the retreating 
ranks of the Spartans. The order was given to pursue. The shout of 
victory already rang through the Persian host, as they dashed in a con- 
fused mass, cavalry and infantry, through ■ the waters of the Asopus, and 
up the hill after the retreating foe. Scarcely had Pausanias time to de- 
ploy on the spot where he had halted for Amompharetus, when the Per- 
sian cavalry were upon him. These were soon followed by the infantry ; 
who, planting in the ground their long wicker shields, or gerrha, and thus 
formmg a kind of breastwork, annoyed the Lacedijemonians with showers of 
arrows. Even in these circumstances the rites of religion were not neg- 
lected by Pausanias. For some time the sacrifices were unfavorable for 
an attack ; till Pausanias invoked the assistance of Hera, whose temple 
rose conspicuous at Plataea. Hardly had the prayer been uttered, when 
the victims changed, and the order to charge was given. The line oi 
wicker shields fell at the first onset of the Lacedaemonians. The light- 
armed undisciplined Persians, whose bodies were unprotected with armor, 
had now to maintain a very unequal combat against the serried ranks, the 
long spears, and the mailed bodies of the Spartan phalanx. Desperate 
deeds of valor they performed, throwing themselves upon the Grecian 
ranks and endeavoring to get into close combat, where they could use their 
javelins and daggers. Mardonius at the head of his body-guard of one 
thousand picked men, and conspicuous by his white charger, was among 
the foremost in the fight, till struck down by the hand of Aimnestus, a 
distinguished Spartan. The fall of their general was the signal for flight 
to the Persians, already wearied and disheartened by the fruitless contest. 
The panic was general both among the Persians themselves and their 
Asiatic allies ; nor did they once stop tiU they had again crossed the Aso- 
pus and reached their fortified camp. 

The glory of having defeated the Persians at Plataea rests, therefore, 
with the Lacedaemonians ; yet the Athenians also were not without some 
share in the honor of the day. Pausanias, when overtaken by the Per- 
sians, despatched a horseman to Aristeides to request him to hasten to his 
assistance ; but the coming up of the Bosotians prevented him from doing 
60. A sharp conflict ensued between the latter and the Athenians. The 



B.C. 479.] DEATH OF MARDONIUS. 211 

Thebans, especially, fought with great bravery ; but were at length re- 
pulsed with considerable loss.. Though compelled to give way, they 
retreated in good order to Thebes, being covered by their cavalry from 
the pursuit of the Athenians. None of the other Greeks in the Persian 
service took any share in the fight, but turned their backs as soon as they 
saw that the day was lost. Of the Persians themselves, forty thousand 
under the command of Artabazus did not strike a blow. The eagerness 
and impetuosity of Mardonius, and the contempt which he had conceived 
for the Lacedaemonians on account of what he considered their flight, had 
led him to begin the attack without waiting for the corps of Aiiabazus ; 
and when that general arrived upon the field, the rout was already com- 
plete. Ai'tabazus, indeed, who had always deprecated a general engage- 
ment, was probably not very zealous on the occasion ; at all events, he did 
not make a single attempt to restore the fortune of the day ; and instead 
of retreating either to Thebes, or to the fortified camp of his countrymen, 
he gave up the whole expedition as irretrievably lost, and directed his 
march towards the Hellespont. 

The Lacedaemonians, now reinforced by the Corinthians and others 
from Platsea, pursued the Persians as far as their fortified camp, whose 
barricades proved a complete check to them, till the Athenians, more 
skilled in that species of warfare, came to their assistance. The barri- 
cades were then stormed and carried, after a gallant resistance on the part 
of the Persians. The camp became a scene of the most horrible carnage. 
According to Herodotus, only three thousand men, exclusive of the divis- 
ion under Artabazus, escaped, out of an army of three hundred thousand. 
These numbers are probably exaggerated ; yet the Persian loss was un- 
doubtedly inamense. That of the Greeks was comparatively small, and 
seems not to have exceeded thirteen or fourteen hundred men. 

§ 9. It remained to bury the dead and divide the booty ; and so great 
was the task, that ten days were consumed in it. The body of Mardonius, 
found among the slain, was treated by Pausanias with respect ; on the 
morrow, not, perhaps, without his connivance, it was secretly conveyed 
away and interred. A monument was even erected over it, which was to be 
seen several centuries afterwards. His cimeter and silver-footed throne 
fell to the share of the Athenians, by whom they were preserved, along 
with the breastplate of Masistius, in the Acropolis of Athens. The other 
booty was ample and magnificent. Gold and silver coined, as well as in 
plate and trinkets ; rich vests and carpets ; ornamented arms ; horses, 
camels ; in a word, all the magnificence of Eastern luxury, were collected 
together in order to be divided among the conquerors. A tithe was first 
selected for the Delphian Apollo, together with ample offerings for the 
Olympic Zeus and the Isthmian Poseidon : and then, after a large share 
had been appropriated to Pausanias, the remainder was divided among 
the Grecian contingents in proportion to their numbers. 



212 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XX 

§ 10. The reduction of Thebes, which had proved the most formidable 
ally of the Persians, was still necessary to complete the victory. On the 
eleventh day after the battle, Pausanias invested that city, and demanded 
that the leading men who had espoused the Persian cause, especially 
Timagenidas and Attaginus, should be delivered up to him. The The- 
bans having refused to comply with this demand, Pausanias began to bat- 
ter their walls, and to lay waste the country around. At length, after the 
siege had lasted twenty days, Timagenidas, and the other Medizing lead- 
ers, voluntarily offered to surrender themselves, hoping, probably, to be 
able to redeem their lives for a sum of money. In this expectation, how- 
ever, they were completely disappointed. The whole of them, with 
the exception of Attaginus, who found means to escape, were conveyed 
to Corinth, and put to death without any form of trial. No attempt was 
made to pursue Artabazus, who escaped safely into Asia. 

§ 11. Among the slain Spartans was Aristodemus, the sole survivor of 
those who had fought at Thermopylte. The disgrace of having outlived 
that battle seems to have rendered life a burden to him. In order to wash 
it out, he stepped forth from the ranks at the battle of Platsea, and after 
performing prodigies of valor, received from the enemy the death which 
he courted. But in the distribution of funeral honors, this conduct could 
extort no favor from the stern justice of his countrymen. They consid- 
ered that desperate rashness and contempt of discipline were no atone- 
ment for former misconduct, and refused to put him on a level with the 
other citizens who had fallen in the combat. Among these was Amom- 
pharetus, the captain whose obstinacy had precipitated the attack of the 
Persians, and thus perhaps, though undesignedly, contributed to secure 
the victory. 

§ 12. With the Greeks, religion and politics went ever hand in hand; 
and if the town and territory of Platsea, as the scene of the Persian defeat, 
were signally honored on this occasion with the grateful offerings of devo^ 
tion, it was not probably without a view to the services which might be 
hereafter required from its citizens in the cause of Grecian independence. 
In the market-place of Platasa, Pausanias, in the presence of the assembled 
allies, offered up a sacrifice and thanksgiving to Zeus Eleutherios, or the 
Liberator, in which the gods and heroes of the Platsean territory were 
made partakers. The Platasans were intrusted with the duty of taking 
care of the tombs of the slain ; of offering a periodical sacrifice in hon- 
or of the victory ; and of celebrating it every fifth year with gymnastic 
games, in a grand public festival, to be called the Eleutheria. For these 
services the large sum of eighty talents was allotted to them out of the 
spoil, part of which was employed in erecting a temple to Athena. At 
the same time the independence of Platsea, and the inviolability of her 
territory, were guaranteed by the allies ; the defensive league against the 
Persians was renewed ; the contingent which each ally should furnish 



B. C. 479.J BATTLE OF MTCALE, 213 

was specified ; and it was arranged that deputies from all of them should 
meet annually at Platsea. 

§ 13. At the very time of the defeat at Plat^a, the failure of the Per- 
Bian expedition was completed by the destruction of their naval armament. 
Leotychides, the Spartan admiral, having at length sailed across the 
JEgean, found the Persian fleet at Mycale, a promontory of Asia Minor 
near Miletus, and only separated by a strait of about a mile in breadth 
from Cape Poseidium, the easternmost extremity of Samos. Their 
former reverses seem completely to have discouraged the Persians from 
hazarding another naval engagement. The Phoenician squadron had 
been permitted to depart ; the rest of the ships were hauled ashore and 
surrounded with a rampart ; whilst an army of sixty thousand Persians, 
under the command of Tigranes, hned the coast for their defence. 

The Greeks landed on the 4th of the month Boedromion (September 
22d), in the year 479 b. c. : the very day on which the battle of Platsea 
was fought. A supernatural presentiment of that decisive victory, con- 
veyed by a herald's staff, which floated over the -^gean from the shores of 
Greece, is said to have pervaded the Grecian ranks at Mycale as they 
marched to the attack. As at Platjea, the Persians had planted their ger- 
rha, or wicker shields, before them ; but after a sharp contest this bulwark 
was overthrown- The Persians now turned their backs, and fled to their 
fortification, pursued by the Greeks, who entered it almost simultaneously. 
Here a bloody struggle ensued. The Persians fought desperately, though 
without discipline, and for some time maintained an unequal conflict. At 
length the arrival of the Lacedaemonians, who composed the right wing of 
the Greek force, and who had been retarded by the hilly ground which 
they had to traverse, as well as the open revolt of the lonians, who now 
turned upon their masters, completed the discomfiture of the Persians. 
A large number of them, together with both their generals, Tigranes and 
Mardontes, perished on this occasion ; and the victory was rendered still 
more decisive by the burning of their fleet. The honor of the day, which, 
however, was not won without the sacrifice of many lives, was principally 
due to the Athenians, as the Lacedaemonians did not arrive till the battle 
was nearly decided. 

§ 14. The remnant of the Persian array retreated to Sardis, where 
Xerxes had lingered ever since his flight from Greece. He was not in a 
position to avenge this affront, or to retain the Ionian cities of the con- 
tinent in obedience ; still less was it possible for him, after the destruction 
of his fleet, to preserve his dominion over the islands. The latter were 
immediately admitted into the Greek confederation ; but respecting the 
Ionian cities on the continent there was more difficulty. The Greeks 
were not in a condition to guarantee their independence ; and therefore 
the Peloponnesian commanders offered to transport their inhabitants into 
Greece, where they prepared to make room for them, by transplanting 



214 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XX 



into Asia the Greeks who had espoused the Persian cause. But this 
proposition was strenuously opposed by the Athenians, who regarded their 
owu dignity and glory as inseparably bound up with the maintenance of 
their Ionian colonies ; and indeed the effect of such a measure must have 
been to transfer them completely to the Persians. 

§ 15. So imperfect in those times was the transmission of intelligence, 
that the Greeks still believed the bridge across the Hellespont to be 
entire, though it was broken and useless almost a twelvemonth previously, 
during the retreat of Xerxes. At the instance of the Athenians, Leoty- 
chides set sail with the view of destroying it ; but having learnt at Abydos 
that it no longer existed, he departed homewards with the Peloponnesian 
vessels. Xanthippus, however, the Athenian commander, seized the 
opportunity to recover from the Persians the Thracian Chersonese, which 
had long been an Athenian possession, and proceeded to blockade Sestos, 
the key of the strait. Being thus taken by surprise, the Persians flung 
themselves into the town without having time to collect the provisions 
necessary for a siege. Nevertheless, amid the most painful privations, 
they contrived to protract the siege till a late period of the autumn, when 
famine and insubordination reached such a height, that the Persian com- 
manders, Qilobazus and Artayctes, were fain to quit the town by stealth, 
which was immediately surrendered. Artayctes, having fallen into the 
hands of the Greeks, was fixed to a high pole, and left to perish just at 
the spot where the bridge of Xerxes had stood. This deviation from the 
usual humanity of the Greeks, and which seems to have been sanctioned 
by Xanthippus, can only be accounted for by religious exasperation 
occasioned by Artayctes having violated and insulted the grove and 
temple of the hero Protesilaus, in the neighborhood of Sestos. 

After this exploit the Athenians returned home, carrying with them the 
cable of the bridge across the Hellespont, which were afterwards pre- 
served in the Acropolis as a trophy. 




Ruins of an Ionic Temple in Lycia 



Chat. XXLl history op literature. 215 




Bust of Pindar. 
CHAPTER XXI. 

HISTORY OF LITERATURE. 

§ 1. General Characteristics. § 2. Simoiiides. § 3. Pindar. § 4. Ibycus and Bacchylides. 
§ 5. Rise of History and of Composition in Prose. § 6. Hecatseus, Ciiaron of Lampsacus, 
Hellanicus. §7. Herodotus. §8. Character of his Work. Analysis. §9. Predilection 
of Herodotus for Athens. § 10. Style of his Work. 

§ 1. During the period which we have been surveying in the present 
book, Grecian literature was gradually assuming a more popular form, 
especially at Athens, where, since the expulsion of the Peisistratids, the 
people were rapidly advancing both in intellectual culture and in political 
importance. Of this we have a striking proof in the rise of the drama, 
and the founding of a regular theatre ; for dramatic entertainments must be 
regarded as the most popular form which literature can assume. Nearly 
half a century before the Persian invasion, Thespis had sketched out the 
first feeble rudiments of tragedy ; and -3j^schylus, the real founder of tragic 
art, exhibited a play nine years before he fought at Marathon. But 
tragedy still awaited its final improvements from the hand of Sophocles, 
whilst comedy can hardly be said to have existed. For these reasons we 
shall defer an account of the Greek drama to a later period, when we shall 
be enabled to present the subject as a whole, and in a connected point of 
view. 

Tragedy, the noblest emanation of ancient genius, was in fact only the 
final development of lyric poetry ; which, in the period we are consider- 
ing, had attained its highest pitch of excellence in the hands of Simonides 
and Pindar. These two great masters of the lyre never ventured, how- 
ever, beyond the stricter limits of that species of composition, and left their 
contemporary, -^schylus, to gather laurels in a new and unexplored field. 
With Pindar ends the ancient school of lyric poetry ; with -33schylus 
properly begins the splendid list of Athenian dramatists. 

§ 2. Simonides was considerably older than both of these poets ; but 
the length of years which he attained made him their contemporary. He 



216 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Ghap. XXI 

was bom at lulis, in the island of Ceos, in the year 556 b. c. His family- 
had cultivated music and poetry with diligence and success, and he him- 
self was trained up in them as a profession. From his native island he 
proceeded to Athens, where he resided some years at the court of Hip- 
parchus, together with Anacreon and Lasus of Hermione, the teacher of 
Pindar : a society which could not but serve to expand and mature his 
powers, more especially as a sort of rivalry existed between him and 
Lasur. Here he seems to have remained till the expulsion of Hippias 
(b. c. 510). Subsequently he spent some time in Thessaly, under the 
patronage of the Aleuads and Scopads, the dominant famiUes of the cities 
of Larissa and Crannon. The poet seems, however, to have been but 
little satisfied with his visit. His songs were unappreciated by the rugged 
Thessalians, and ill rewarded by their vain and selfish masters. Scopas 
bespoke a poem on his own exploits, which Simonides recited at a banquet. 
In order to diversify the theme, Simonides, as was customary on such 
occasions, introduced into it the exploits of Castor and Pollux. An 
ordinary mortal might have been content to share the praises of the sons 
of Leda ; but vanity is exacting ; and as the tyrant sat at his festal 
board amortg his courtiers and sycophants, he grudged every verse that 
did not echo his o^vn praises. When Simonides approached to receive 
his promised reward, Scopas exclaimed, " Here is my half of thy pay ; 
the Tyndarids who have had so much of thy praise will doubtless furnish 
the other." The disconcerted poet retired to his seat amidst the laughter 
which followed the great man's jest. In a little time he received a mes- 
sage that two young men on horseback, whose description answered inr 
every respect to that of Castor and Pollux, were waiting without, and 
anxious to see him. Simonides hastened to the door, but looked in vain 
for the visitors. Scarcely, however, had he left the banqueting-hall, 
when the building fell in with a loud crash, burying Scopas and all his 
guests beneath the ruins. Into the authenticity of such a story it would be 
idle to inquire. It is enough that we see in it the tribute which a lively 
and ingenious people paid to merit, as in the tales of Arion saved by 
the dolphin, and of Ibycus avenged by the cranes. 

But a nobler subject than the praises of despots awaited the muse of 
Simonides, — the struggles of Greece for her independence. At the time 
of the Persian wars, the poet, who had then reached the age usually 
allotted to man, was again residing among the Athenians. His genius, 
however, was still fresh and vigorous, and was employed in celebrating the 
most momentous events of that memorable epoch. He carried away the 
prize from ^schylus with an elegy upon the warriors who had fallen at 
the battle of Marathon. Subsequently we find him celebrating the heroes 
of Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataea. He was upwards of 
eighty when his long poetical career at Athens was closed with the victory 
irhich he gained by the dithyrambic chorus in b. c. 477, making the 



Chap. XXI.] SIMONIDES AND PINDAR. 217 

fifty-sixth prize that he had carried off. Shortly after this event he 
repaired to Syracuse at the invitation of Hiero. Here he spent the 
remaining ten years of his life, not only entertaining Hiero with liis 
poetry, but instructing him by his wisdom ; for Simonides was a philos- 
opher as well as a poet, and is reckoned amongst the sophists. 

Simonides was one of the most prolific poets that Greece had seen ; but 
only a few fragments of his compositions have descended to us. He em- 
ployed himself on all the subjects which fell to the lyric poet, then the 
mouthpiece of human life with all its joys and sorrows, its hopes and 
disappointments. He wrote hymns, paeans, elegies, hyporchemes, or songs 
for dancing, dithyrambs, epinician odes, and threnes, or dirges, in which he 
lamented the departed great. In the last species of composition he par- 
ticularly excelled. His genius was inclined to the pathetic, and none 
could touch with truer effect the chords of human sympathy. 

§ 3. Pindar, though the contemporary of Simonides, was considerably 
his junior. He was born either at, or in the neighborhood of, Thebes in 
Boeotia, about the year 522 b. c. His family ranked among the noblest in 
Thebes, and seems to have been celebrated for its skill in music, though 
there is no authority for the assertion that they were hereditary flute- 
players. The youth soon gave indications of a genius for poetry, which 
induced his father to send him to Athens to receive more perfect instruc- 
tion in the art. Later writers tell us that his future glory as a poet was 
miraculously foreshadowed by a swarm of bees which rested uj)on his lips 
while he was asleep, and that this miracle first led liim to compose poetry. 
At Athens he became the pupil of Lasus of Hermione, who was the 
founder of the Athenian dithyrambic school. He returned to Thebes 
before he had completed his twentieth year, and is said to have received 
instruction there from Myrtis and Corinna, two poetesses who then en- 
joyed great celebrity in Boeotia. Corinna appears to have exercised con- 
siderable influence upon the youthful poet, and he was not a little indebted 
to her example and precepts. It is related that she recommended him 
to introduce mythical narrations into his poems, and that when, in accord- 
ance with her advice, he composed a hymn in which he interwove almost 
all the Theban mythology, she smiled and said, " We ought to sow with 
the hand, and not with the whole sack." With both these poetesses he 
contended for the prize in the musical contests at Thebes. 

Pindar commenced his professional career at an early age, and soon 
acquired so great a reputation, that he was employed by various states 
and princes of the Hellenic race to compose choral songs. He was 
courted especially by Alexander, king of Macedonia, and by Hiero, despot 
of Syracuse. The praises which he bestowed upon Alexander are said to 
have been the chief reason which led his descendant, Alexander the Great, 
to spare the house of the poet when he destroyed the rest of Thebes. 
About B. c. 473 he visited Syracuse, but did not remain more than four 
28 



218 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. YXT 

years with Hiero, as he loved an independent life, and did not care to 
cultivate the courtly arts which rendered his contemporary, Simonides, 
a more welcome guest at the table of their patron. But the estimation in 
which Pindar was held is still more strikingly shown by the honors con- 
ferred upon him by the free states of Greece. Although a Theban, he 
was always a great favorite with the Athenians, whom he frequently 
praised in his poems, and whose city he often visited. The Athenians 
testified their gratitude by making him their public guest, and by giving 
him ten thousand drachmas ; and at a later period they erected a statue 
in his honor. 

The only poems of Pindar which have come down to us entire are his 
Epinicia, or triumphal odes, composed in commemoration of victories 
gained in the great public games. But these were only a small portion 
of his works. He also wrote hymns, paeans, dithyrambs, odes for pro- 
cessions, songs of maidens, mimic dancing-songs, drinking-songs, dirges, 
and encomia, or panegyrics on princes.* 

The style of Pindar is marked by daring flights and abrupt transitions, 
and became proverbial for its sublimity. He compared himself to an 
eagle, — a simile which has been beautifully expressed in the Imes of 
Gray : — 

" The pride and ample pinion 
That the Theban ea2;1e bare, 
Sailins; with supreme dominion 
Through the azure deep of air." 

§ 4. The only other poets of this epoch whom we need mention are 
Ibycus and Bacchylides. Ibycus was a native of Rhegium, and flourished 
towards the middle of the sixth century before the Christian era. The 
best part of his life was spent at the court of Polycrates of Samos. The 
story of his death is well known. While travelling through an unfre- 
quented place near Corinth, he was set upon by robbers and mortally 
wounded. As he was on the point of expiring, he called upon a flock of 
cranes that happened to fly over the spot to avenge his death. Soon 
afterwards the cranes were beheld hovering over the theatre at Corinth, 
where the people were a'^sembled ; and one of the murderers, who were 
present, struck with remorse and terror, involuntarily exclaimed, " Behold 
the avengers of Ibycus ! " and thus occasioned the detection of the crimi- 

* Most of them are mentioned by Horace : — 

" Seu per audnces nova dithyrambos 
Verba devolvit, numerisque fertur 

Lesre solutis; 
Seu deos (hymns andpceans) regesve (encomia) canit, deonun 

Sanguinem: 

Sive quos Elea domum reducit 

Palma coele<;tes (the Epinicia) 

Flebili sponsfe jnvenemve raptum 
Plorat " (the Dirges). — Od. iv. 2. 



Chap. XXI.] eaklt prose-writers. 21 } 

nals.* The poetry of Ibycus was chiefly of an amatory character. He 
wrote in a dialect which was a mixture of the Doric and ^olic. 

Bacchylides was a native of lulis in the island of Ceos, and tlie nephew 
and fellow-townsman of Simonides. He lived with Simonides and Pindar 
at the court of Hiero at Syracuse. His odes and songs turned on the 
same subjects as those of the poets just named ; but though he seems to 
have rivalled his uncle in the grace and finish of his compositions, he was 
far from attaining to the strength and energy of Pindar. He wrote in 
the Doric dialect, with a mixture of the Attic. 

Such were the principal characteristics of the poetry of the epoch which 
we are considering, and such the chief poets who flourished in it. Our 
attention must now be directed to a striking feature in the literature of the 
period, — the rise of composition in prose, and of history properly so 
called. 

§ 5. The Greeks had arrived at a high pitch of civilization before 
they can be said to have possessed a history. Nations far behind them in 
intellectual development have infinitely excelled them in this respect. 
Many of the Eastern nations had continuous chronicles from a very remote 
antiquity, as the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Jews. But among 
the Greeks this branch of literature was singularly neglected. Their 
imagination seems to have been entirely dazzled and fascinated with the 
glories of the heroic ages, and to have taken but little interest in the 
events which were daily passing around them. But a more critical and 
inquiring spirit was now beginning to spring up, especially among the 
lonians of Asia Minor. We have already recorded the rise of natural 
philosophy among that people, and we are now to view them as the 
originators of history in prose. This innovation of course implies a more 
extended use of the art of writing, without which a long prose composition 
could not be remembered. 

§ 6. The use of prose in writing was probably coeval with the art of 
writing itself; but its first application was only to objects of essential 
utility, and it was long before it came to be cultivated as a branch of 
literature. The first essays in literary prose cannot be placed earlier 
than the sixth century before the Christian era. Three nearly contem- 
porary authors, who flourished about the middle of that century, lay claim 
to the honor of having been the first prose-writers ; namely, Cadmus of 
Miletus, Pherecydes of Syros, and Acusilaus of Argos ; but Hecatosus of 
Miletus, to whom Herodotus frequently refers by name, must be regarded 
as the first historical prose-writer of any importance. He was apparently 
a man of wealth and importance, and distinguished himself by the sound 
advice which he gave the lonians at the time of their revolt from Per- 



* One of the finest ballads of Schiller is on this subject. It has been translated into 
English several times. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's version is the best known. — Ed. 



220 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXT. 

Bia (b. c. 500"). He lived till the close of the Persian wars in Greece. 
Like many other early Greek historians, Hecataeus was a great traveller, 
for at first geography and history were almost identical. Egypt especially 
he seems to have carefully explored. Two works are ascribed to him; 
one of a geographical nature, called "Periodus," or travels round the 
eai'th, and the other of an historical kind, which is sometimes cited by the 
name of " Genealogies," and sometimes by that of " Histories." The 
former of these seems to have constituted the first regular system of 
Grecian geography ; but it was probably little more than a " Periplus," 
or circu'Tinavigation of the Mediterranean, and its adjoinmg seas. The 
" Genealogies " related to the descent and exploits of the heroes of 
mythology. 

Charon of Lampsacus, an Ionian city on the Hellespont, is remarkable 
as the first prose-writer whose subjects were selected from the historical 
times, and treated in a rational and discriminating manner ; and he has 
therefore some title to be regarded as the first historian really deserving 
of the name. He flourished in the first half of the fifth century b. c, and 
was certainly alive in b. c. 464. 

The only other prose-writer previous to Herodotus, whom it is neces- 
sary to mention, is HellanTcus of Mytilene. Hellanicus was alive at the 
commencement of the Peloponnesian war, and was therefore a contempo- 
rary of Herodotus, though probably a little older. He was by far the 
most eminent and most voluminous writer of history before the time of 
Herodotus, and seems to have been the author of at least ten or twelve 
works of considerable size. Many others were ascribed to him which in 
all probability were spurious. Like his predecessors, a large portion of 
his labors was dedicated to imaginary pedigrees, but some of them were 
historical and chronological. He seems to have been acquainted with the 
early history of Italy and Rome. He must be regarded as forming the 
chief link between the earlier logographers and Herodotus ; but his works 
were probably very far from exhibiting the unity of design which we find 
in that of the latter writer. 

§ 7. According to the strict order of chronology, neither Herodotus 
nor some others of the authors just mentioned belong to the period which 
we are now considering ; but the subject of Herodotus connects him so 
intimately with the Persian wars, that we have preferred to give an 
account of him here, rather than in a subsequent book. Herodotus was 
born in the Dorian colony of Halicarnassus in Caria, in the year 4S4 B.C., 
and accordingly about the time of the Persian expeditions into Greece. 
He was descended from a distinguished family, but respecting his youth 
and education we are totally in the dark. One of the earliest events of 
his life with which we are acquainted is his retirement to Samos, in order 
to escape the tyranny of Lygdamis, a grandson of Queen Artemisia, who 
had fought so bravely at Salanais. It was perhaps in Samos that Herodotus 



Chap. XXI.] Herodotus. 221 

acquired the Ionic dialect. Tlie celebrity of the Ionian writers of history 
had caused that dialect to be regarded as the appropriate vehicle for that 
species of composition ; but though Herodotus made use of it, his lan- 
guage has been observed not to be so pure as that of HecatiBus, who 
was an Ionian by birth. Herodotus was probably rather more than thirty 
years of age when he went to Samos. How long he remained there 
cannot be determined. He seems to have been recalled to his native city 
by some political crisis ; for on his return he took a prominent part in 
delivering it from the tyrant Lygdamis. The dissensions, however, w^hich 
prevailed at Halicarnassus after that event, compelled Herodotus again to 
emigrate ; and it was probably at this period that he undertook the travels 
of which he speaks in liis Avork. The extent of them may be estimated 
from the fact, that there was scarcely a town in Greece, or on the coast of 
Asia Minor, with which he was not acquainted ; that he had explored 
Thrace and the coasts of the Black Sea ; that in Egypt he had penetrated 
as far south as Elephantine ; and that in Asia he had visited the cities 
of Babylon, Ecbatana, and Susa. The latter part of his life was spent at 
Thurii, a colony founded by the Athenians in Italy in b. c. 443 ; and it 
was probably at this place that he composed the greater portion of his 
history. The date of his settlement at Thurii cannot be accurately fixed. 
Some accounts make him accompany the first colonists thither ; but there 
are reasons for believing that he did not take up his abode there till 
several years afterwards. According to a well-known story in Lucian, 
Herodotus, when he had completed his work, recited it publicly at the 
great Olympic festival, as the best means of procuring for it that celebrity 
to which he felt that it was entitled. Posting himself on the platform of 
the temple of Zeus, he recited, or rather chanted, the whole of his work 
to the assembled Greeks. The effect is described as immediate and com- 
plete. The deUghted audience at once assigned the names of the nine 
Muses to the nine books into which it is divided ; whilst the celebrity of 
the author became so great, that it even eclipsed that of the victors in the 
games. A still later auther (Suidas) adds, that Thucydides, then a boy, 
was present at the festival with his father Olorus, and was so affected by 
the recital as to shed tears ; upon which Herodotus congratulated Olorus 
on having a son who possessed so early such a zeal for knowledge. But 
there are many objections to the probability of these tales. 

The time and manner of the death of Herodotus are uncertain, but ws 
Tcnow, from some allusions in his histoiy, that he was alive subse- 
quently to the year 408 B. c. According to one tradition he died at 
Thurii ; according to another, at Pella in Macedonia. The former ac- 
count is hardly probable, since Thurii revolted from Athens in 412, when 
the old Athenian colonists who sided with the mother country were driven 
int<» exile. Unless, therefore, we assume that Herodotus took part with 
the insurgents, it seems most likely that he quitted Thurii at this period, 



222 HISTORY OF GREECE, [Chap. XYT 

and it is not improbable that, like Lysias the orator, he returned to 
Athens. 

§ 8. Herodotus interwove into his history all the varied and extensive 
knowledge acquired in his travels, and by his own personal researches. 
The real subject of that magnificent work is the conflict between the 
Greek race, in the widest sense of the term, and including the Greeks of 
Asia Minor, with the Asiatics. This is the ground-plan of the book, and 
A^as founded on a notion then current of an ancient enmity between the 
Greeks and Asiatics, as exemplified in the stories of lo, Medea, and 
Helen. Thus the historian had a vast epic subject presented to him, 
which was brought to a natural and glorious termination by the defeat of 
the Persians in their attempt upon Greece. He touches the ancient and 
mythical times, however, but lightly, and hastens on to a more recent and 
authentic historical period. Croesus, king of Lydia, the earliest Asiatic 
monarch who had succeeded in reducing a portion of the Greek race to 
subjection, first engages his attention at any length. The quarrel be 
tween Croesus and Cyrus, king of Persia, brings the latter power upon 
the stage. The destruction of the Lydian monarchy by the Persians is 
related, and is followed by a retrospective view of the rise of the Persian 
power, and of the Median empire. This is succeeded by an account of 
the reduction of the rest of Asia Minor and of Babylonia ; and the first 
book closes with the death of Cyrus in an expedition against the Massa- 
getge, a race inhabiting the plains beyond the Caspian Sea. Cambyses, 
the son of Cyrus, undertakes an expedition against Egypt, which gives 
occasion to a description of that country occupying the whole of the 
second book. In the third book the annexation of Egypt to the Persian 
empire is related, as well as the abortive attempts of Cambyses against 
the ^Ethiopians and Ammonians. The death of Cambyses, the usurpa- 
tion of the false Smerdis, and the accession of Darius, form the remainder 
of the third book. The fourth book is chiefly occupied with the Scythian 
expedition of Darius ; whilst at the same time a Persian armament fitted 
out in Egypt for the conquest of Libya, serves to introduce an account of 
the discovery and colonization of the latter country by the Greeks. In 
the fifth book the termination of the Thracian expedition under the satrap 
Megabazus is related ; and a description is given of the Thracian people. 
This book also contains an account of the origin of the quarrel between 
Persia and the Greek colonies in Asia Minor. The history of the wars 
between the Greeks and Persians then runs on with little interruption in 
the remainder of this book, and in the last four books. The work con- 
cludes with the reduction of Sestos by the Athenians. 

§ 9. The love and admiration of Herodotus for Athens are apparent 
throughout his work ; he sided with her with all his soul, and declared 
her to be the saviour of Grecian liberty. This attachment was not un- 
rewarded by the Athenians, and a psephisma, or vote of the people, is 



Chap. XXI.] hebodotus. 223 

recorded, granting him the sum of ten talents out of the public treasury. 
It was this not unfounded admiration of Herodotus for Athens that gave 
occasion to Plutarch, or some writer who assumed Plutarch's name, to 
charge him with partiality and malice towards other Grecian states. 

§ 10. The ease and simplicity of the style of Herodotus lend it an 
indescribable charm, and we seem rather to be conversing with an 
intelligent traveller than reading an elaborately composed history. On 
the other hand, a certain want of skill in compsition may be observed in it. 
Prose style does not arrive at perfection till much has been written, and 
with Herodotus it was still in its infancy. Nor must we seek in him 
for that depth of philosophical reflection which we find in Thucydides. 
Sometimes, indeed, he exhibits an almost childish credulity. Yet he 
had formed a high notion of the value of history, and was evidently 
a sincere lover of truth. He may sometimes have received the accounts 
of others with too trusting a simplicity, yet he always gives them for what 
they are worth, leaving the reader to' form his own judgment, and often 
cautioning him as to their source and value. On the other hand, where 
he speaks from his own observation, his accounts may be imphcitly relied 
upon; and many of them, which were formerly doubted as improbable, 
have been confirmed by the researches of modern travellers. In short, 
Herodotus is the Homer of history. He has all the majesty and sim- 
plicity of the great epic bard, and all the freshness and vivacity of 
coloring which mark the founder of a new literary epoch. 




Bust of Herodotaa. 




The Theseum at Athens. 



BOOK IV. 



THE ATHENIAN SUPREMACY AND THE PELO- 
PONNESIAN WAR. 

B. C. 477-404. 



CHAPTER XXn. 

FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE PERSIANS TO THE DEATH OP 
THEMISTOCLES. 



§ 1. Further Proceedings against the Persians. § 2. Misconduct and Treason of Pausanias. 
§ 3. The Maritime Supremacy transferred to the Athenians. § 4. Confederacy of Delos. 
I 5. The Combined Fleet under Cimon. ^ 6. Growth of the Athenian Power. Plans of 
Themistocles. § 7. Rebuilding of Athens. The Lacedjsmonians attempt to prevent its 
being fortified. § 8. Fortification of Peirsus. § 9. Strife of Parties at Athens. Mis- 
conduct of Themistocles. § 10. He is ostracized. ^ 11. Pausanias convicted of Med- 
ism. § 12. Themistocles implicated in his Guilt. He escapes into Asia. § 13. He is 
magnificently received by Artaxerxes. His Death and Character. § 14. Deatly of 
Aristeides. 

§ 1. The last campaign had effectually delivered Greece from aU fear 
of the Persian yoke ; but the Persians still held some posts from which it 
concerned both the interests and the honor of the Greeks to expel them. 
They were in possession of the island of Cyprus and of the important 



B. C. 478.] MISCONDUCT AND TREASON OF PAUSANIAS. 225 

town of Byzantium, together with Eion on the Strjmon, Doriscus, and 
several other places in Thrace. A fleet was therefore fitted out (b. c. 478) 
the year after the battle of Platsea, and placed under the command of the 
Spartan regent, Pausanias. Of this fleet only twenty ships belonged to 
the Peloponnesians, whilst thirty, under the command of Aristeides and 
Cimon, were furnished by Athens alone. After dehvering most of the 
Grecian towns in Cyprus from the Persians, this armament sailed up the 
Bosporus and laid siege to Byzantium, which was garrisoned by a large 
Persian force commanded by some kinsmen of Xerxes. The town sur- 
rendered after a protracted siege ; but it was during this expedition that 
the conduct of the Spartan commander struck a fatal blow at the mterests 
of his country. 

• § 2. The immense booty, as well as the renown, which Pausanias had 
acquired at Platsea, had filled him with pride and ambition. When he 
returned home, he felt it irksome to conform to the simpHcity and sobriety 
of a Spartan hfe, and to submit to the commands of the Ephors. He 
had given a signal instance of the pride with which he was inflated 
by causing Simonides to attribute the glory of the Persian defeat solely 
to himself in the epigram * which he composed for the tripod dedicated 
at Delphi ; a piece of vanity wliich gave such offence to the Lacedas- 
monians, that they caused the mscription to be erased, and another to be 
substituted in its place. Nevertheless, in spite of these symptoms, he had 
been again intrusted with the command. During the whole course of it, 
his conduct was marked by the greatest vanity and insolence ; towards the 
end, it was also sullied by treason. After the capture of Byzantium, he 
put himself in communication with the Persian court, through Gongylus, 
an Eretrian exile and subject of Persia. He sent Gongylus clandestinely 
to Xerxes, with those members of the royal family who had been taken at 
Byzantium, and assured the allies that they had escaped. At the same 
time he despatched the following letter to Xerxes : — 

" Pausanias, the Spartan commander, wishing to oblige thee, sends back 
these prisoners of war. I am minded, if it please thee, to mai'ry thy 
daughter, and to bring Sparta, and the rest of Greece, under thy dominion. 
Tliis I hold myself able to do with the help of thy counsels. If, therefore, 
the project at all pleases thee, send down some trustworthy man to the 
coast, through whom we may carry on our future correspondence." 

Xerxes was highly delighted with this letter, and sent a reply in which 
he urged Pausanias to i^ursue his project night and day, and promised to 
supply him with all the money and troops that might be needful for its 
execution. At the same time he appointed Artabazus, who had been 
second in command in Bceotia, to be satrap of Dascylium, where he would 
be able to co-operate with the Spartan commander. But the childish 

* The Greek epigram means inscription simply, and not necessarily the pointed style of 
composition intended by that word in modern languages. — Ed. 
29 



22!6 HISTORT OP GREECE. [Chap. XXII 

vanity of Pausanias betrayed his plot before it was ripe for execution. 
Elated by the confidence of Xerxes, and by the money with which he was 
lavishly supplied, he acted as if he had already married the great king's 
daughter. He assumed the Persian dress ; he made a progress through 
Thrace, attended by Persian and Egyptian guards ; and copied, in the 
luxury of his table and the dissoluteness of his manners, the example of 
his adopted country. Above all, he offended the allies by his haughty 
reserve and imperiousness. 

i § 3. His designs were now too manifest to escape attention. His pro- 
ceedings reached the ears of the Spartans, who sent out Dorcis to super- 
sede him. But when Dorcis arrived, he found that the allies had 
transferred the command of the fleet to the Athenians. 

There were other reasons for this step besides the disgust occasioned by 
the conduct of Pausanias. Even before the battle of Salamis, the pre- 
ponderating naval power of Athens had raised the question whether she 
was not entitled to the command at sea; and the victory gained there, 
under the auspices of Themistocles, had strengthened her claim to that dis- 
tinction. But the delivery of the Ionian colonies from the Persian yoke 
was the immediate cause of her attaining it. The lonians were not only 
attracted to Athens by affinity of race, but, from her naval superiority, 
regarded her as the only power capable of securing them in their newly 
acquired independence. Disgusted by the insolence of Pausanias, the 
lonians now serving in the combined Grecian fleet addressed themselves 
to Aristeides and Cimon, whose manners formed a striking contrast to 
those of the Spartan leader, and begged them to assume the command. 
Aristeides was the more inclined to listen to this request as it was made 
precisely at the time when Pausanias was recalled. The Spartan 
squadron had accompanied him home ; so that, when Dorcis arrived with 
a few ships, he found himself in no condition to assert his pretensions. 

§ 4. This event was not a mere empty question about a point of honor. 
It was a real revolution, terminated by a solemn league, of which 
Athens was to be the head ; and though it is wrong to date the Athenian 
empire from this period, yet it cannot be doubted that this confederacy 
formed her first step towai'ds it. Aristeides took the lead in this matter, 
for which his proverbial justice and probity, and his conciliatory manners, 
eminently qualified him. The league obtained the name of " the Con- 
federacy of Delos," from its being arranged that deputies of the allies 
belonging to it should meet periodically for deliberation in the temple of 
Apollo and Artemis in that island. The league was not, however, con- 
fined to the lonians. It was joined by all who sought, in the maritime 
power of Athens, a protection against the attacks of Persia. Besides the 
Ionic islands of Samos and Chios, it was joined by Rhodes, Cos, Lesbos, 
and Tenedos. Among the continental towns belonging to it, we find 
Miletus, the Greek towns on the peninsula of Chalcidice, and the recently 



B.C. 477.] THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS. 227 

delivered Byzantium. Each state was assessed in a certain contribution 
either of money or ships, as proposed by the Athenians and ratified by 
the Synod.* The assessment was intrusted to Aristeides, whose justice 
and impartiahty were universally applauded. Of the details, however, we 
only know that the first assessment amounted to four hundred and sixty 
talents (about £112,000 sterling f) ; that certain officers called Helleno- 
tamiae were appointed by the Athenians to collect and administer the 
contributions ; that Delos was the treasury ; and that the tax was called 
phoros ; a name which afterwards became odious when the tribute was 
abused for the purposes of Athenian ambition. 

§ 5. Such was the origin of the Confederacy of Delos. Soon after its 
formation Aristeides was succeeded in the command of the combined fleet 
by Cimon, whose first important action seems to have been the capture of 
Eion on the Strymon. This place was bravely defended by Boges, the 
Persian governor, who refused all offers of capitulation ; and when hia 
provisions were exhausted and all further defence impracticable, he caused 
a large funeral pile to be kindled, into which he cast his wives, his concu- 
bines, and children, and lastly himself. 

The next event of any moment was the reduction of the island of 
Scyros, probably in B. c. 470. A portion of the inhabitants of Scyros had 
been condemned by the Amphictyonic Council as guilty of piracy, and,, 
in order to avoid payment of the fine imposed upon them, appealed to 
Cimon ; who took possession of the island, and, after expelling the natives, 
colonized it with Athenians. The hero Theseus had been buried inv 
Scyros ; and now, by command of an oracle, his bones were disinterred 
and carried to Athens, where they were deposited with much solemnity in 
a temple called the Theseum, which exists at the present day. 

§ 6. The isle of Scyros is small and barren, but its position and excel- 
lent harbor rendered it an important naval station. The occupation of it 
by the Athenians seems to have been the first actual step taken by them 
in the career of aggrandizement on which they were now about to enter ; 
but the rapid growth of their maritime power, and especially the formation 
of the Confederacy of Delos, had already roused the jealousy and sus- 
picion of Sparta and other states. It was, probably, a lingering dread of 
the Persians, against whose attacks the Athenian fleet was indispensably 
necessary, which had prevented the Lacedaemonians from at once resent- 
ing that encroachment on their supremacy. Up to that time Sparta 
had been regarded as entitled to take the lead in Grecian affairs, and for 
a moment the league formed at Platsea after the defeat of Mardonius 
seemed to confirm her in that position. But she was soon deprived of it 
by the misconduct of her leaders, and by the skill and enterprise of Athens. 

* The Synod (trvi/oSoy) was the assembly of delegates from the several states, with 
authority to decide upon the general affairs of the confederacy. — Ed. 
t Half a million of dollars. — Ed. 



228 HISTORY OF GEKECE. [ClIAP. XXII. 

That city was the only one which, during the Persian wars, had dis- 
played ability and heroism equal to the crisis. She had taken a large share 
in the battle of Platsea, whilst the glory of ]\Iarathon and Salaiiiis and 
Mycale was almost entirely her own. Above all, the sufferings which she 
had voluntarily undergone in the common cause entitled her to the love 
and sympathy of Greece. It was not, however, the gratitude of her alhes 
which placed her in the commanding situation she was now about to seize. 
She owed it rather to the eminent qualities of two of her citizens, — to the 
genius of Themistocles and to the virtue of Aristeides. It was, as we 
have seen, through the immediate agency of Aristeides that the Confed- 
eracy of Delos was established : a matter which his able but unprincipled 
rival, owing to the want of confidence felt in his character, would hardly 
have been able to carry out. But it was Themistocles who had first 
placed Athens in a situation which enabled her to aspire to the chief com- 
mand. His genius had mastered all the exigencies of the crisis. His ad- 
vice to the Athenians to rely on their ships, and to abandon their city to 
its fate, had not only saved Athens but Greece. He was now engaged in 
measures which might enable Athens by the same means to consolidate 
and extend her power ; and the Confederacy of Delos promised to bring 
his plans to an earlier maturity than even he had perhaps ventured to 
anticipate. But in order to understand the plans of Themistocles, it will 
be necessary to revert to the city of Athens itself, and to trace its progress 
after the close of the Persian war. 

§ 7. The Athenians, on their return to Attica after the defeat of the 
Persians, found their city ruined and their country desolate. Their first 
care was to provide shelter for the houseless families which had been 
transported' back from Troezen, JEgina, and Salamis. "When this had 
been accomplished, they began to rebuild their city on a larger scale than 
before, and to fortify it with a wall. Those allies to whom the increasing 
maritime power of Athens was an object of suspicion, and especially the 
^ginetans, to whom it was more particularly formidable, beheld her rising 
fortifications with dismay. In order to prevent the completion of these 
fortifications, they endeavored to inspire the Lacediemonians with their 
own fears, and urged them to arrest the Avork. But though Sparta shared 
the jealousy of the .^Eginetans on this occasion, she could not with any 
decency interfere by force to prevent a friendly city from exercising a 
right inherent in all independent states. She assumed, therefore, the 
hypocritical garb of an adviser and counsellor. Concealing her jealousy 
under the pretence of zeal for the common interests of Greece, she repre- 
sented to the Athenians that, in the event of another Persian invasion, for- 
tified towns would serve the enemy for camps and strongholds, as Thebes 
had done in the last war ; and proposed that the Athenians should not 
only desist from completing their own fortifications, but help to demolish 
those which already existed in other towns. 



B. C. 478.] FORTIFICATION OF ATHENS. 229 

The object of tliis proposal was too transparent to deceive so acute a 
statesman as Themistocles. Athens was not yet, however, in a condition 
to incur the danger of openly rejecting it ; and he therefore advised the 
Athenians to dismiss the Spartan envoys, with the assurance that they 
would send ambassadors to Sparta to explain their views. He then caused 
himself to be appointed one of these ambassadors, together with Aristeides 
and Abronychus ; and, setting off at once for Sparta, directed his colleagues 
to linger behind as long as possible. At Sparta, the absence of his col- 
leagues, at which he affected to be surprised, afforded him an excuse for 
not demanding an audience of the Ephors. During the interval thus 
gained, the whole population of Athens, of both sexes and every age, 
worked day and night at the walls, which, when Aristeides and Abrony- 
chus at length arrived at Sparta, had attained a height sufficient to afford 
a tolerable defence. Meanwliile, the suspicions of the Spartans had been 
more than once aroused by messages from the -ZEginetans respecting the 
progress of the walls. Themistocles, however, positively denied their 
statements, and urged the Spartans to send messengers of their own to 
Athens in order to learn the true state of affairs ; at the same time in- 
structing the Athenians to detain them as hostages for the safety of him- 
self and colleagues. As there was now no longer any motive for conceal- 
ment, Themistocles openly avowed the progress of the works, and his 
intention of securing the independence of Athens, and enabling her to act 
for herself. As the walls were now too far advanced to be easily taken, 
the Spartans found themselves compelled to acquiesce, and the works were 
completed without further hindrance. 

§ 8. Having thus secured the city from all danger of an immediate at- 
tack, Themistocles pursued his favorite project of rendering Athens the 
greatest maritime and commercial power of Greece. The large fleet 
which lie had called into existence, and which he had persuadetl the 
Athenians to increase by building twenty triremes every year, was destitute 
of a strong and commodious harbor such as might afford shelter both 
against the weather and the attacks of an enemy. The open roadstead 
of Phalerum was quite inadequate for these purposes ; and during his 
administration three years before, Themistocles had persuaded his country- 
men to improve the natural basins of Peir^us and Munychia. The works 
had been interrupted, and perhaps ruined, by the Persians ; but he now 
resumed his scheme on a still more magnificent scale. Peirajus and IMuny- 
chia were both inclosed in a Avail as large in extent as that of the city itself, 
but of vastly greater height and thickness. In his own magnificent ideas, 
which already beheld Athens the undisputed mistress of the sea, the wall 
•which sheltered her fleet was to be perfectly unassailable. Its height was 
to be such that boys and old men might suffice for its defence, and leave 
the men of military age to act on board the fleet. It seems, however, to 
have been found either unnecessary or impossible to carry out the design 



230 HISTORY OF GKEECE. [Chap. XXII 

of Themistocles. The wall rose only to about sixty feet, or half the pro« 
jected height ; but this was always 'bund amply sufficient.* 

§ 9. The ancient rivalry betAveen Themistocles and Aristeides had been 
in a good degree extinguished by the danger which threatened their com- 
mon country during the Persian wars. Aristeides had since abandoned 
his former prejudices, and was willing to conform to many of the demo- 
cratical innovations of his rival. In fact, the crisis through which Athens 
had recently passed had rendered the progress of the democratical senti- 
ment irresistible. Whilst the greater part of the male population was 
serving on shipboard without distinction of rank, and the remainder dis- 
persed in temporary exile, political privileges had been necessarily sus- 
pended ; and the whole body of the people, rendered equal by the common 
danger, became also equal in their civil rights. The effect of this was to 
produce, soon after their return to Attica, a still further modification of 
the constitution of Cleisthenes. The Thetes, the lowest of the four classes 
of Athenian citizens, were declared eligible for the magistracy, from which 
they had been excluded by the laws of Solon. Thus not only the ar- 
chonship, but consequently the Council of Areopagus, was thrown open 
to them ; and, strange to say, this reform was proposed by Aristeides 
himself. 

Nevertheless, party spirit still ran high at Athens. Cimon and ATc- 
mfeon were violent opponents of Themistocles, and of their party Aris- 
teides was still the head. The popularity of Aristeides was never 
greater than at the present time, owing not only to the moderation and 
the more liberal spirit which he exhibited, but also to his great services in 
establishing the Confederacy of Delos. He was, therefore, more than ever 
to be dreaded as an adversary ; and the conduct of Themistocles soon laid 
him open to the attacks of his enemies. He offended the Athenians by 
his ostentation and vanity. He was continually boasting of his services 
to the state ; but, worse than all this, his conduct was stained with positive 
^uilt. There was much to be done after the close of the Persian wars in 
xestoring ^der in the Grecian communities ; in deposing corrupt magis- 
trates, in punishing evil-doers, and in replacing fugitives and political ex- 
iles in their possessions. All these things opened a great field for bribery 
and corruption ; and whilst Themistocles, at the head of an Athenian 
squadron, was sailing among the Greek islands for the ostensible purpose 
of executing justice, there is little room to doubt that he corrupted its 
very source by accepting large sums of money from the cities which he 
visited. 

§ 10. The influence of the Lacedaemonians was still considerable at 
Athens. The conservative party there, and especially Cimon, one of its 



* For a further account of the topography of Athens and the Peirseus, see Chapb 
XXXIV. 



B.'G. 471.J TREASON AND FALL OF PAUSANIAS. 231 

principal leaders, regarded with love and Teneration the stable institutiona 
of Sparta, which formed a striking contrast to the democratieal innovations 
which were making such rapid progress in their own city. The Lacedae- 
monians on their side were naturally inimical to the Athenian democracy, 
as the party most opposed to their interests and power ; and to Themis- 
tocles himself they were personally hostile, on account of the deception 
which he had lately practised upon them. Hence, when Pausanias 
became suspected of Medism, they urged the political opponents of Themis- 
tocles to accuse him of being implicated in the same crime. This accusa- 
tion was at all events premature ; nor is it surprising that the Athenian 
statesman should have been acquitted of a charge which could not at that 
time be brought home to Pausanias himself. The result, however, of this 
accusation was to embitter party spirit at Athens to such a degree, that it 
was found necessary to resort to ostracism, and Themistocles was con- 
demned to a temporary banishment (b. c. 471). He retired to Argos, and 
had been residing in that city for a s] ace of about five years when indubi- 
table proofs were discovered of his ' 'ing implicated in the treasonable 
correspondence of Pausanias with the Persians. But in order to explain 
tiie fall of the Athenian statesman, we must first relate that of the Spartan 
regent, with which it was intimately connected. 

§ 1 1. The recall of Pausanias from Byzantium has been already men- 
tioned. On his arrival at home he seems to have been acquitted of any 
definite charges ; yet the general presumption of his guilt was so strong, 
that he was not again intrusted with the command of the fleet. This was 
perhaps an additional motive with him to complete his treachery. Under 
pretence of serving as a volunteer, he returned to Byzantium with a single 
trireme, and renewed his negotiations with Artabazus. Here he seems to 
have again enjoyed a sort of ascendency, till his conduct obliged the 
Athenians to expel him fi-om this city. He then retired to Colonee, in the 
Troad, where he still pursued his designs ; employing both Persian gold, 
and perhaps the influence of the Spartan name, in order to induce various 
Grecian cities to particii^ate in his schemes. 

At the news of these proceedings the Spartans again ordered Pausanias 
home, under pain of being denounced as a public enemy. With this order 
he deemed it prudent to comply ; foreseeing that, if proscribed, his influ- 
ence would be at an end, and relying, probably, on his riches to bribe his 
judges and procure an acquittal. But, though at first imprisoned by the 
Ephors, nobody was bold enough to come forward as his accuser. His 
treachery, though sufficiently palpable, seems to have offered no overt and 
legally tangible act, and he was accordingly set at liberty. He now em- 
ployed himself in hatching treason nearer home. He tampered with the 
Helots, and by promises of enfranchisement and political rights endeav- 
ored to persuade them to overthrow the Ephors, and make him sole 
wvereign. Though these plots were communicated to the Ephors, they 



232 HisTOEr OF Greece. [Chap. XXTT 

were still either unable or unwilling to prosecute so powerful a criminal. 
Meanwhile, he continued his correspondence with Persia ; and an acci- 
dent at length afforded convincing proofs of his guilt. 

A favorite slave, to whom he had intrusted a letter to Artabazus, 
observed with dismay that none of the messengers employed in this ser- 
vice had ever returned. Moved by these fears, he broke the seal and 
read the letter, and finding his suspicions of the fate that awaited him con- 
firmed, he carried the document to the Ephors. But in ancient states the 
testimony of a slave was always regarded with suspicion. The Ephors 
refused to believe the evidence offered to them unless the slave placed 
them in a position to have it confirmed by their own ears. For this pur- 
pose they dii-ected him to plant himself as a suppliant in the grove of 
Poseidon, near Cape Tsenarus, in a hut behind which two of their body 
might conceal themselves. Pausanias, as they had expected, anxious and 
surprised at the step taken by his slave, hastened to the spot to question 
him about it. The conversation which ensued between them, and which 
was overheard by the Ephors, rendered it impossible for them any longer 
to doubt the guilt of Pausanias. They now determined to arrest him on 
his return to Sparta. They met him in the street near the temple of 
Athena Chalcioecus (of the Brazen House) ; when Pausanias, either 
alarmed by his guilty conscience, or put on his guard by a secret signal 
from one of the Ephors, turned and fled to the temple, where he took 
refuge in a small chamber belonging to the building. From this sanctuary 
it was unlawful to drag him ; but the Ephors caused the doors to be 
built up and the roof to be removed ; and his own mother is said to have 
placed the first stone at the doors. When at the point of death from star- 
vation, he was carried from the sanctuary before he polluted it with his 
corpse. 

§ 12. Such was the end of the victor of Plataea. After his death proofs 
were discovered among his correspondence that Themistocles was impli- 
cated in his guilt. The Lacedaemonians now again called upon the 
Athenians to prosecute their great statesman before a synod of the allies 
assembled at Sparta ; and joint envoys were sent from Athens and Sparta 
to arrest him. 

Themistocles avoided the impending danger by flying from Argos to 
Corcyra. The Corcyrgeans, however, refusing to shelter him, he passed 
over to the continent ; where, being still pursued, he was forced to seek 
refuge at the court of Admetus, king of the Molossians, though he had 
made Admetus his personal enemy by opposing him on one occasion in 
some favor which the king begged of the Athenians. Fortunately, 
Admetus happened to be from home. The forlorn condition of Themis- 
tocles excited the compassion of the wife of the Molossian king, who 
placed her child in his arms, and bade him seat himself on the hearth as a 
suppliant. As soon as the king arrived, Themistocles explained his peril, 



B. C. 449.] DEATH OF THEMISTOCLES. 233 

and adjured him by the sacred laws of hospitahty not to take vengeance 
upon a fallen foe. Admetus accepted his appeal and raised him from the 
hearth ; he refused to deliver him to his pursuers, and at last only dis- 
missed him on his own expressed desire to proceed to Persia. Having 
traversed the mountains, Themistocles reached Pydna, on the Thermaic 
Gulf, where, under an assumed name, he took passage in a merchant-ves- 
sel bound for the coast of Asia Minor. The ship was driven by stress of 
weather to the island of Naxos, which happened at that very moment to 
be blockaded by an Athenian fleet. In this conjuncture Themistocles 
adopted one of those decisive resolutions which never failed him in the 
hour of danger. Having summoned the master of the vessel, he disclosed 
to him his real name, and the peril which menaced him in case of dis- 
covery. He then conjured the master not to make the land, at the same 
time threatening that, if detected, he would involve him in his own ruin by 
representing him as the accomplice of his flight ; promising, on the other 
hand, a large reward if he would secure his escape. These representa- 
tions induced the master to keep the sea in spite of the weather; and 
Themistocles landed safely at Ephesus. 

§ 13. Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, was now upon the throne of 
Persia, and to him Themistocles hastened to announce himself. Having 
been conducted to Susa, he addressed a letter to the Persian king, in 
which he claimed a reward for his past services in favoring the escape of 
Xerxes, and promised to effect much for Persian interests if a year were 
allowed him to mature his plans. Ai'taxerxes welcomed the arrival of the 
illustrious stranger, and readily granted his request. According to the 
tales current at a later period, the king was so transported with joy as to 
start from his sleep at night and thrice to cry out, " I have got Themis- 
tocles the Athenian." At the end of the year, Themistocles, having 
acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Persian language to be able to con- 
verse in it, entertained Artaxerxes with magnificent schemes for the 
subjugation of Greece, and succeeded in gaining his entire confidence and 
favor. Artaxerxes loaded him with presents, gave him a Persian wife, 
and appointed Magnesia, a town not far from the Ionian coast, as his 
place of residence. In accordance with Eastern magnificence, the reve- 
nues of that place, amounting to the yearly sum of fifty talents,* were 
assigned to him for bread, whilst Myos was to supply condiments, and 
Lampsacus wine. At Magnesia Themistocles was joined by his family ; 
and after living there some time was carried off by disease at the age of 
sixty-five, without having realized, or apparently attempted, any of those 
plans with which he had dazzled the Persian monarch. Rumor, which 
ever dogs the footsteps of the great, ascribed his death to poison, which he 
took of his own accord, from a consciousness of his inability to perform hia 

* About $52,000, — Ed. 
30 



:234 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIl 

j^romises ; but this report, which was current in the time of Thucydides, is 
reacted by that iiistorian, though it was subsequently adopted by writers 
of no mean note. The tale was probably propagated by the friends of 
Themistocles, who also asserted that, at his express command, they had 
carried his bones to Attica, and had secretly buried them in his native 
land. In the time of the Eoman empire his tomb was shown upon the 
promontory at the right hand of the enti«,nce of the great harbor of 
Peirteus.* This was doubtless the invention of a later age ; but the 
imagination could not have chosen a fitter spot for the ashes of the 
founder of the maritime greatness of Athens. Hence we find in an 
ancient epigram, supposed to have been inscribed upon his tomb : — 

"By the sea's margin, on the watery strand, 
Thy monument, Themistocles, shall stand: 
By this directed to thy native shored 
The merchant shall convey his freighted store ; 
And when our fleets are summoned to the fight, 
Athens shall conquer with thy tomb in sight." 

Themistocles is one of those characters which exhibit at once all the 
greatness and all the meanness of human nature. Acuteness in foreseeing, 
readiness and wisdom in contriving, combined with vigor and decision in 
acting, were the characteristics of this great statesman, and by these 
qualities he not only rescued his country from the imminent danger of the 
Persian yoke, but enabled her to become one of the leading states of 
Greece. Yet his lofty genius did not secure him from the seductions of 
avarice and pride, which led liim to sacrifice both his honor and his 
country for the tinsel of Eastern pomp. But the riches and luxury which 
surrounded him served only to heighten his infamy, and were dearly 
bought with the hatred of his countrymen, the reputation of a traitor, and 
the death of an exile. 

.§ 14. Aristeides died about four years after the banishment of Themis- 
tocles. The common accounts of his poverty are probably exaggerated, 
and seem to have been founded on the circumstances of a public funeral, 
and of handsome donations made to his three children by the state. But 
in ancient times these were no unusual marks of respect and gratitude 
towards merit and virtue ; and as he was archon eponymus at a time when 
only the first class of the Solonian census was admissible to this office, he 
must have enjoyed a certain amount of property. But whatever his 
property may have been, it is at least certain that he did not acquire or 
increase it by unlawful means ; and not even calumny has ventured to 
assail his well-earned title of the Just. 

* Massive remains still exist of what has been called the Tomb of Themistocles. The 
situation is most appropriate for such a monument, commanding a near view of the whole 
Bcene of the battle of Salamis, and laved by the waters that bore the Persian fleet on that 
memorable day. — Ed. 



ShAP. XXIII.] RISK AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMFlUli. 



235 




Pericles and 




CHAPTER XXni. 

RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE. FROM THE BATTLB 

OF EURYMEDON TO THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE WITH SI'ARTA. 

\ 1. Cimon Leader of the Aristocratical Party at Athens. § 2. Revolt of Naxns. § .3. Bat- 
tle of Eurymedon. § 4. The Athenians blockade Thasos, and attempt to found Colonies 
in Thrace. § 5. Enrthquake at Sparta and Revolt of the Helots. § 6. Decline of 
Spartan Power. § 7. Cimon assists the Spartans to suppress the Revolt, but without 
Success. The Spiirtans offend the Athenians by dismissing their Troops. § S. Parties 
at Athens. Character of Pericles. § 9. Attack upon the Areopagus. § 10. Ostracism of 
Cimon. § 11. Administration and Foreign Policy of Pericles. § 12. Expedition of the 
Athenians into Egypt against the Persians. § 13. Hostilities with Corinth and .Egina. 
Defeat of the Corinthians at Megara. § 14. The Long Walls of Athens commenced. 
§15. The Lacedsemonians march into BcEotia. Battle of Tanagra. § 16. Recall of Cimon. 
4 17. Battle of (Enophyta, and Conquest of Boeotia. Conquest of jEgiiia. ^18. The Five 
Years' Truce. Expedition of Cimon to Cyprus. His Death. § 19. Conclusion of the 
War with Persia. § 20. The Athenian Power at its Height. § 21. Decline of the Athe- 
nian Power. Revolution in Boeotia. Other Athenian Reverses. Invasion of Attica by 
.the Lacedsemonians under Pleistoanax. § 22. Pericles recovers Euboea. Thirty Years' 
Truce with Sparta. 



§ 1. On the death of Aristeides, Cimon became the undisputed leader 
of the aristocratical or conservative party at Athens. Cimon was gener- 
ous, affable, magnificent ; and, notwithstanding his political views, of 
exceedingly popular manners. He had inherited the military genius 
of his father, and was undoubtedly the greatest commander of his time. 



236 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIII 

He employed the vast wealth acquired in his expeditions in adorning 
Athens and gratifying his fellow-citizens. He kept open house for such 
of his demos (the Laciadse) as were in want of a meal, and appeared in 
public attended by well-dressed slaves, who were often directed to ex- 
change their comfortable garments with the threadbare clothes of needy 
citizens. But his mind was uncultivated by arts or letters, and what elo- 
quence he possessed was rough and soldiei'likc. 

§ 2. The capture of Eion and reduction of Scyros by Cimon have been 
already related. It was two or three years after the latter event that we 
find the first symptoms of discontent among the members of the Confed- 
eracy of Delos. Naxos, one of the confederate islands, and the lamest of 
the Cy chides, revolted in b. c. 466, probably from a feeling of the grow- 
ing oppressiveness of the Athenian headship. It was immediately invested 
by the confederate fleet, and after a blockade of unknown duration reduced 
and made tributary to Athens. It was during this blockade that Themis- 
tocles, as before related, passed the island in his flight to Asia. This was 
another step towards dominion gained by the Athenians, whose pretensions 
were assisted by the imprudence of the allies. Many of the smaller states 
belonging to the confederacy, wearied with perpetual hostilities, commuted 
for a money payment the ships which they were bound to supply ; and 
thus, by depriving themselves of a navy, lost the only means by which 
they could assert their independence. 

§ 3. The same year was marked by a memorable action against the 
Persians. Cimon, at the head of two hundred Athenian triremes, and 
one hundred furnished by the allies, proceeded to the coast of Asia Minor, 
where he expelled the Persians from several Grecian towns in Caria and 
Lycia. Meanwhile the Persians had assembled a large fleet and army at 
the mouth of the river Eurymedon in Pamphylia. Their fleet already 
consisted of two hundred vessels, chiefly Phoenician ; and as a renitbrce- 
ment of eighty more was expected, Cimon resolved to lose no time in 
making an attack. After speedily defeating the fleet, Cimon landed his 
men and 'marched against the Persian army, which was drawn up on the 
shore to protect the fleet. The land force fought with bravery, but was 
at length put to the rout. These victories were still further enhanced by 
the destruction of the eighty vessels, with which Cimon happened to fall 
in on his return. A victory gained on the same day both by sea and land 
added greatly to the renown of Cimon, and was commemorated on the 
tripod dedicated to Apollo as one of the most glorious of Grecian exploits. 

§ 4. The successes of the Athenians, and their undisputed power at 
sea, led them to extend their empire by means of colonies. Some of the 
Athenians who had settled at Eion on the Strymon after the expulsion of the 
Persians, had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the surround- 
ing country, which was principally occupied by Edonian Thracians, and 
was distinguished not only by the fertility of its soil, but also by its gold 



B. C. 464.] EARTHQUAKE AT SPARTA. 237 

mines on Mount Pangjeus. But in their attempts to form a })ermanent 
settlement on this coast, the Athenians were opposed by the inhabitants of 
the opposite island of Thasos, who were possessed of considerable territory 
upon the continent of Thrace, and derived a large revenue from the mines 
of Scapte Hyle and other places. 

The island of Thasos was a member of the Confedei'acy of Delos, with 
which, howevei-, this quarrel does not appear to have been in any way 
connected. The ill-feeling soon reached such a pitch, that Cimon was 
desi>atched in b. c. 465 with a powerful fleet against the Thasians. In 
this expedition the Athenians gained various successes both by sea and 
land, but totally failed in their attempt to found a colony on the mainland, 
near Eion. This result, however, was owing to the hostility of the native 
tribes. A body of ten thousand Athenians and their allies, who had taken 
possession of Ennea Hodoi, a place on the Strymon, about three miles 
above Eion, were attacked by the Thracians and nearly all of them slain. 
Nevertheless the Athenians did not abandon the blockade of Thasos. 
After a siege of more than two years that island surrendered, when its 
fortifications were razed, its fleet and its possessions in Thrace were con- 
fiscated, and it was condemned to pay an annual, as well as an immediate, 
tribute. 

§ 5. The expedition to Thasos was attended with a circumstance which 
first gives token of the coming hostilities between Sparta and Athens. 
At an early period of the blockade the Thasians secretly applied to the 
Lacedasmonians to make a diversion in their favor by invading Attica ; 
and though the Laceda?monians were still ostensibly allied with Athens, 
they were base enough to comply with this request. But their treachery 
was prevented by a terrible calamity which befell themselves. In the year 
B. c. 464, their capital was visited by an earthquake which laid it in ruins 
and killed twenty thousand of its citizens, besides a large body of their 
chosen youth, who were engaged in a buUding iu their gymnastic exer- 
cises. . But this was only part of the calamity. The earthquake was 
immediately followed by a revolt of the Helots, who were always ready 
to avail themselves of the weakness of their tyrants. Some of that op- 
pressed people had been dragged from the sanctuary of Poseidon at 
Tcenarus, probably in connection with the afiair of Pausanias, related in 
the preceding chapter ; and now the whole race, and even the Lacedgemo- 
nians themselves, believed that the earthquake was caused by the anger 
of that " earth-shaking " deity. Encouraged by this signal of the divine 
favor, and being joined by some of the Perioeci, the Helots rushed to 
ai-ms, and marched straight upon Sparta. In this attempt to seize the 
capital they were repulsed ; nevertheless tliey were stiU able to keep the 
field ; and, being joined by the Messenians, fortified themselves in Mount 
Ithome in Messenia. Hence this revolt is sometimes called the third 
Messenian war. After two or three years spent in a vain attempt to dis- 



238 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIII 

lodge them from this position, the Lacedaemonians found themselves 
obliged to call in the assistance of their allies, and among the rest of the 
Athenians. 

§ 6. That Sparta should thus have condescended to solicit the assist- 
ance of her rival to quell a domestic feud, shows that she must have fallen 
greatly from her former power and station. During the period, indeed, 
in which we have traced the rise of Athens, Sparta had been proportion- 
ably declining. Of the causes of this decline we can only mention some 
of the more prominent. Foremost among them was the misconduct of her 
leaders. The misconduct of Pausanias, by which the maritime supremacy 
was transferred to Athens, has been already related. His infamy found a 
counterpart in the infamy of Leotychides, another of her kings, and the 
conqueror of Mycale ; who, being employed in arranging the affairs of 
Tliessaly after its evacuation by the Persians, was convicted of taking 
bribes from the Persian king. The Lacedagmonians committed, moreover, 
a great political blunder in the settlement of Boeotia, whose affairs had 
been so thoroughly shaken by the Persian invasion. Thebes, convicted 
of Medism, was, with the concurrence of Sparta, degraded from her former 
rank and influence ; whilst Platsea and Thespise, which stood opposed to 
the capital, were strengthened, and the latter repeopled. Thus the influ- 
ence of Athens in Boeotia was promoted, in proportion as Thebes, her 
ancient enemy, was weakened and degraded. The affairs of the Pelopon- 
nesus itself had been unfavorable to the Spartans. They had been en- 
gaged in a harassing war with the Arcadians, and were also cramped 
and menaced by the growing power of Elis. And now all these causes 
of weakness were aggravated by the earthquake, and consequent revolt of 
the Helots. 

§ 7. It was with great difficulty that Cimon persuaded his countrymen 
to assist the Lacedaemonians in quelling this revolt. His power was now 
somewhat waning before the rising influence of Pericles. Notwithstand- 
ing what he had accomplished at Thasos, it is even said that more had 
been expected by the Athenians, and that Pericles actually accused him, 
though without success, of having been diverted from the conquest of 
Macedonia, by the bribes of Alexander, the king of that country. Cimon, 
however, at length succeeded in persuading the Athenians to despatch him, 
with a force of four thousand hoplites, to the assistance of the Lacedae- 
monians ; but the ill success of this expedition still further strengthened the 
hands of his political opponents. 

The aid of the Athenians had been requested by the Lacedemonians on 
account of their acknowledged superiority in the art of attacking fortified 
places. As, however, Cimon did not succeed in dislodging the Helots 
from Ithome, the Lacedfemonians, probably from a consciousness of their 
own treachery in the affair of Thasos, began to suspect that the Athenians 
were playing them false. The conduct of the latter does not seem tc 



B. €. 464.1 PERICLES. 239 

have afforded the least ground for this suspicion, and Cimon, their general^ 
was notoriously" attached to Sparta. Yet the Lacedfemonians, fearing 
that the Athenians intended to join the Helots, abruptly dismissed them, 
stating that they had no longer any occasion for their services ; although 
the other allies were retained, and the siege of Ithome still proceeded. 

§ 8. This rude dismissal gave great offence at Athens, and annihilated 
for a time the political influence of Cimon. The deraocratieal party had 
from the first opposed the expedition ; and it afforded them a great 
triumph to be able to point to Cimon returning not only unsuccessful but 
insulted. That party was now led by Pericles. A sort of hereditary 
feud existed between Pericles and Cimon ; for it was Xanthippus, the 
father of Pericles, who had impeached Miltiades, the father of Cimon. 
The character of Pericles was almost the reverse of Cimon's. Although 
the leader of the popular party, his manners were reserved. He was of 
high family, being descended on his mother's side from the princes of Sicyon 
and the AlcmsBonidse, whilst on his father's he was connected with the 
family of Peisistratus, to which tyrant he is said to have borne a striking 
personal resemblance. He appeared but little in society or in public, 
reserving himself for great occasions ; a conduct which, when he did come 
forward, enhanced the effect of his dignified bearing and impressive elo- 
quence. His military talents were but slender, and in fact in this depart- 
ment he was frequently unsuccessful. But his mind had received the 
highest polish which that period was capable of giving. He constantly 
conversed with Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Zeno, and other eminent philoso- 
phers. To oratory in particular he had devoted much attention, as an 
indispensable instrument for swaying the public assemblies of Athens ; and 
he is said to have been the first who committed his speeches to writing. 
He was not much distinguished for private liberality ; but he made amends 
for the popularity which he lost in this way by his lavish distribution of 
the public money. Such was the man Avho for a considerable period was 
to administer the affairs of Athens. 

§ 9. Pericles seized the occasion presented by the ill success of 
Cimon, both to ruin that leader and to strike a fatal blow at the aristo- 
cratical party. The latter object he sought to accomplish by various 
changes in the Athenian constitution, and particularly by an attack upon 
the Areopagus. That venerable and time-honored assembly contained 
the very pith and marrow of Athenian aristocracy. Besides its high 
judicial functions, it exercised a kind of general censorship over the 
citizens. By the nature of its constitution it was composed of men 
of advanced years, and of high |)Osition in the state. The measure of 
Aristeides, already mentioned, opened it, at least ostensibly, even to tlie 
lowest class of citizens ; but this innovation, which was perhaps only 
designed to stave off those more serious changes which the rapid progress 
»f democratical opinion seemed to threaten, was probably of little practical 



240 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. XX TTT 

effect. So long as magistracies continued to be elective, there can be little 
doubt that the rich would carry them, to the exclusion of the poor, A 
fatal blow to aristocratical power was, however, struck about this time by 
rendering the election to magistracies dependent upon lot ; though it is 
uncertain whether this measure was originated by Pericles. We are also 
ignorant of the precise nature of the changes which he introduced into the 
constitution and functions of the Areopagus, though, with regard to their 
result, it is certain that they left that august body the mere shadow of its 
former influence and power. Other changes which accompanied thii 
revolution — for such it must be called — were, the institution of pail 
dicasteries or jury -courts, and the almost entire abrogation of the judicial 
power of the Senate of Five Hundred. As the seal and symbol of these 
momentous innovations, Ephialtes, the friend of Pericles, caused the tablets 
containing the laws of Solon to be brought down from the Acropolis and 
deposited in the market-place, as if to signify that the guardianship of the 
laws had been transferred to the people. 

§ 10. It cannot be supposed that such fundamental changes were 
effected without violent party strife. Even the theatre became a vehicle 
to express the passions and the prmciples of the agora. In the drama of 
the Eumenides, JEschylus in vain exerted all the powers of his genius hi 
support of the aristocratical party and of the tottering Areopagus ; his 
exertions on this occasion resulted only in his own flight from Athens. 
The same fate attended Cimon himself. In the heat of political conten- 
tion, recourse was had to ostracism, the safety-valve of the Athenian consti- 
tution, and Cimon was condemned to a ten years' banishment. Nay, 
party violence even w^ent the length of assassination. Ephialtes, who had 
taken the lead in the attacks upon the Areopagus, and whom Pericles, in 
conformity with his policy and character, seems to have put forward 
throughout as the more active and ostensible agent, fell beneath the 
dagger of a Boeotian hired by the conservative party to despatch him. 
This event took place after the banishment of Cimon, who was guiltless of 
all participation in so foul a deed. 

§ 11. It was from this period that the long administration of Pericles 
may be properly said to have commenced. The effects of his accession to 
power soon became visible in the foreign relations of Athens. Pericles 
had succeeded to the political principles of Themistocles, and his aim was 
to render Athens the leading power of Greece. The Confederacy of 
Delos had already secured her maritime ascendency ; Pericles directed 
his policy to the extension of her influence in Continental Greece. The 
insult offered by Sparta to Athens in dismissing her troops had highly 
inflamed the Athenians against that power, whose supporters at Athens 
were designated with the contemptuous name of Laconizers. Pericles 
and the democratic party turned the conjuncture to account, not only by 
persuading the people to renounce the Spartan alliance, but to join her 



B. C. 460.] EXPEDITION AGAINST THE PERSIANS. 241 

bitterest enemies. Ai-gos, the ancient rival of Sparta, claimed the head- 
ship of Greece rather from the recollections of her former mythical 
renown than from her present material power. But she had availed 
herself of the embarrassment which the revolt of the Helots occasioned to 
Sparta, to reduce to subjection My cense, Tiryns, and some other neighbor- 
ing towns. ,With Ai-gos thus strengthened Athens now formed a defen- 
sive alliance again;i;t Sparta, which the Thessalians were also induced to 
join. Soon afterwards Athens still further extended her mfluence in 
Continental Greece by an alliance with Megara. This step, which gave 
signal offence both at Sparta and Corinth, greatly increased the power of 
the Athenians, not only by opening to them a communication with the 
Crissasan Gulf, but also by giving them the key to the passes of Mount 
Geraneia, and thus enabling them to arrest the progress of an invading 
army from Peloponnesus. Li order to strengthen Megara the Athenians 
adopted a contrivance which they aftei;wards applied to their own city. 
Megara was seated on a hill, at the distance of nearly a mile from its port, 
Nisaga. To prevent the communication between the port and city from 
being cut off, the Athenians caused them to be connected together by two 
parallel lines of wall, and placed a permanent garrison of their own in the 
place. 

§ 12. Whilst these things were passing in Greece, the Athenians were 
still actively engaged in prosecuting the war against Persia. The con- 
federate fleet was hovering about the coasts of Cyprus and Phoenicia ; and 
the revolt of Inaros (b. c. 460) gave them an opportunity to carry the 
war into Egypt. Inaros, a Libyan prince, and son of Psammetichus, was 
bent on expelling the Persians from Egypt and obtaining the sovereignty 
of that country ; and with this view he soUcited the assistance of the 
Greeks. The Athenian fleet at Cyprus, amounting to two hundred 
triremes, accordingly sailed to the Nile, and proceeded up that river as far 
as Memphis. From this city they succeeded in expellmg the Persians, 
who, however, maintained themselves in a kind of citadel or fortification 
called " the White Fortress." The siege of this fortress had already 
lasted four or five years, when Artaxerxes sent a large army, together 
with a Phoenician fleet, into Egypt, under the command of Megabyzus, 
who compelled the Athenians to raise the siege and to retire to an island 
in the Nile, called Prosopitis, as the Persians had prevented their further 
retreat by obstructing the lower part of the river. Here the Athenians 
ofiered a long and heroic resistance, till at length Megabyzus, having 
diverted one of the channels which formed the island, was enabled to 
attack them by land. The Athenians, who had previously burnt their 
ships, were now obliged to capitulate. The barbarians did not, how- 
ever, observe the terms of the capitulation, but perfidiously massacred the 
Athenians, with the exception of a small body, who succeeded in cutting 
their way through the enemy, and escaping to Cyrene, and thence to 
31 



242 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXIII. 

Greece. Inaros himself was taken and crucified. As an aggravation of 
the calamity, a reinforcement of fifty Athenian vessels, whose crews were 
ignorant of the defeat of their countrymen, fell into the power of the 
enemy and were almost entirely destroyed. Thus one of the finest arma- 
ments ever sent forth from Athens was all but annihilated, and the Per- 
sians regained possession of the greater part of Egypt (b. c. 455). 

§ 13. It may well excite our astonishment that, while Athens was em- 
ploying so large an armament against the Persians, she was still able to 
maintain and extend her power in Greece by force of arms. Corinth, 
Epidaurus, and ^gina were watching her progress with jealousy and 
awe. At the time of the Megarian alliance no actual blow had yet been 
struck ; but that important accession to the Athenian power was speedily 
followed by open war. The -^ginetans, . in conjunction with the Co- 
rinthians, Epidaurians, and other Peloponnesians, fitted out a large fleet. 
A battle ensued near the island of -^gina, in which the Athenians gained 
a decisive victory, and entirely ruined the naval power of the ^ginetans. 
The Athenians captured seventy of their ships, and, landing a large force 
upon the island, laid siege to the capital. 

The growth of the Athenian power was greatly promoted by the con- 
tinuance of the revolt of the Helots, which was not put down till the yeaa: 
B. c. 455. This circumstance prevented the Lacedaemonians from op- 
posing the Athenians as they would otherwise probably have done. All 
the assistance afforded by the allies to the JEginetans consisted of a miser- 
able detaclmient of tln:ee hundred men ; but the Corinthians attempted to 
divert the Athenians by making an attack upon Megara. Hereupon 
Myronides marched from Athens at the head of the boys and old men, 
and gave battle to the enemy near Megara. The affair was not very 
decisive, but the Corinthians retired, leaving their adversaries masters of 
the field. On their return home, however, the taunts which they encoun- 
tered at having been defeated by so unwarlike a force incited them to try 
their fortune once more. The Athenians again marched out to the attack, 
and this time gained a decisive victory, rendered still more disastrous to 
the Corinthians by a large body of their troops having marched by mis- 
take into an inclosed place, where they were all cut to pieces by the 
Athenians. 

§ 14. It was about tliis time (b. c. 458 - 457) that the Athenians, 
chiefly through the advice of Pericles, began to construct the long walls 
which connected the Peirgeus and Phalerum with Athens. They were 
doubtless suggested by the apprehension that the Lacedfemonians, though 
now engaged with domestic broils, would sooner or later take part in the 
confederacy which had been organized against Athens. This gigantic 
undertakmg was in conformity Avith the policy of Themistocles for render- 
ing the maritime power of Athens wholly unassailable ; but even the 
magnificent ideas of that statesman might perhaps have deemed the work 



B. C. 457.] BATTLE OF TANAGRA. 219 

cMmerical and extravagant. The wall from Phalerum was thirty five 
stadia, or about four miles long, and that from Peirseus fortj stadia, or 
about four miles and a half, in length. The plan of these walls was 
probably taken from those already erected at Megara, which had been 
recently tried, and perhaps found to be of good service in the war which 
had taken place there. The measure was violently opposed by the aristo- 
cratic party, but without success. 

§ 15. The progress of Athens h^d now awakened the serious jealousy 
of Sparta, and though she was still engaged in the siege of Ithome, 
she resolved on taking some steps against the Athenians. Under the 
pretence of assisting the Dorians, whose territory had been invaded by 
the Phocians, fifteen hundred Spartan hoplites, supported by ten thousand 
allies, were despatched into Doris. The mere approach of so large a force 
speedily effected the ostensible object of the expedition, and compelled the 
Phocians to retire. The Lacedaemonians now proceeded to effect their 
real design, which was to prevent the Athenians from gaining such an 
ascendency in Boeotia as they had gained in other places. In conse- 
quence of the part she had played during the Persian wars, Thebes 
had lost much of her former influence and power ; and the conduct of 
Sparta herself in the subsequent settlement of Greece had, as before 
related, been conducive to the same result. The Lacedsemonians seem to 
have now become sensible of the mistake which they had committed; 
and though their general pohcy was adverse to the confederation of cities, 
yet they were now induced to adopt a different course, and to restore the 
power of Thebes by way of counterpoise to that of Athens. With this 
view the Lacedaemonian troops were marched into Boeotia, where they 
were employed in restoring the fortifications of Thebes, and in reducing 
the Boeotian cities to her obedience. The designs of Sparta were assisted 
by the traitorous co-operation of some of the oligarchical party at Athens. 
That faction, finding itself foiled in its attempt to arrest the progress 
of the long walls, not only invited the Lacedaemonians to assist them in 
this attempt, but also to overthrow the democracy itself The Lacedae- 
monians hstened to these proposals, and their army took up a position at 
Tanagra, on the very borders of Attica. The Athenians, suspecting that 
some treason was in progress, now considered it high time to strike a 
blow. With such of their troops as were not engaged at JEgina, together 
with a thousand Argeians, and some Thessalian horse, they marched out 
to oppose the Lacedaemonians at Tanagra. Here a bloody battle ensued 
(b. c. 457), in which the Lacedemonians gained the advantage, chiefly 
through the treacherous desertion of the Thessalians in the very heat ot 
the engagement. The victory was not sufficiently decisive to enable the 
Lacedaemonians to invade Attica ; but it served to secure them an un- 
molested retreat, after partially ravaging the Megarid, through the passes 
of the Geraneia. 



244 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIII 

§ 16. Previously to the engagement, the ostracized Cimon, who was 
grievously suspected of being implicated in the treachei-ous correspond- 
ence of some of his party with the Lacediemonians, presented himself 
before the Athenian army as soon as it had crossed the border, and 
earnestly entreated permission to place himself in the ranks of the 
hoplites. His request being refused, he left his armor with some friends, 
conjuring them to wipe out, by their conduct in the field, the imputation 
under which they labored. Stung by the unjust suspicions of their 
countrymen, and incited by the exhortations of their beloved and banished 
leader, a large band of his most devoted followers, setting up his armor 
in their ranks, fought side by side with desperate valor, as if he still 
animated them by his presence. A hundred of them fell in the engage- 
ment, and proved by their conduct that, with regard at least to the 
majority of Cimon's party, they were unjustly suspected of collusion with 
the enemy. Cimon's request had also stimulated Pericles to deeds of extra- 
ordinary valor; and thus both parties seemed to be bidding for public 
favor on the field of battle, as they formerly had done in the bloodless con- 
tentions of the Athenian assembly. A happy result of this generous 
emulation was that it produced a great change in public feeling. Cimon's 
ostracism was revoked, and the decree for that purpose was proposed by 
Pericles himself. 

§ 17. The healing of domestic faction gave a new impulse to public 
spirit at Athens. At the beginning of the year b. c. 456, and only about 
two months after their defeat at Tanagra, the Athenians again marched 
into Boeotia. The Boeotians went out to meet them with a numerous 
army; but in the battle of QEnophyta, which ensued, the Athenians 
under Myronides gained a brilliant and decisive victory, by which Thebes 
itself, and consequently the other Boeotian towns, fell into their power. 
The Athenians now proceeded to reverse all the arrangements which had 
been made by the Lacedaemonians, banished all the leaders who were 
favorable to Spartan ascendency, and established a democratical form 
of government. To these acquisitions Phocis and Locris were soon 
afterwards added. 

From the Gulf of Corinth to the Straits of Thermopylae Athenian in- 
fluence was now predominant. In the year after the battle of CEnophyta 
(b. c. 455), the Athenians finished the building of the long walls and 
completed the reduction of JEgina, which became a subject and tributary 
ally. Then' expedition into Egypt, and its unfortunate catastrophe in this 
year, has been already related. But notwithstanding their efforts and 
reverses in that quarter, they were strong enough at sea to scour the 
coasts of Greece, of which they gave a convincing proof. An Athenian 
fleet, under command of Tolmides, sailed round Peloponnesus, and in- 
sulted the Lacedgenlonians by burning their ports of Methone and Gy- 
thium. Naupactus, a town of the Ozolian Locrians near the mouth 



B. C. 452.] EXPEDITION OF CIMON TO CYPRUS. 246" 

of the Gulf of Corinth, was captured ; and in the latter place Tolmides 
estabUshed the Helots and Messenians, who in the course of this year had 
been subdued by the Lacedaemonians, and compelled to evacuate Itliome. 
During the course of the same expedition the islands of Zacynthus and 
Cephallenia were gained over to the Athenian alliance, and probably also 
some to\vns on the coast of Achaia. 

§ 18. After the battle of Tanagra the Lacedaemonians made for a 
while no further attempts to oppose its progress, and quietly beheld the 
occupation of Boeotia and Phocis. Even after the surrender of Ithome 
they still remained inactive ; and three years after that event (b. c. 452), 
concluded a five years' truce with the Athenians. This truce was effected 
through the mediation of Cimon, who was anxious that no dread of hostil- 
ities at home should divert him from resuming operations agahist the 
Persians ; nor perhaps was Pericles unwilling that so formidable a rival 
should be absent on foreign service. Cimon sailed to Cyprus with a fleet 
of two hundred triremes belonging to the confederacy ; whence he de- 
spatched sixty vessels to Egypt, to assist the rebel prince Amyrtteus, who 
still held out against the Persians among the marshes of the Delta. But 
this expedition proved fatal to the great Athenian commander. With the 
remainder of the fleet, Cimon undertook the siege of Citium in Cyprus ; 
but died during the progress of it, either from disease or from the effects of 
a wound. The command now devolved on Anaxicrates ; who, being strait- 
ened by a want of provisions, raised the siege of Citium, and sailed for 
Salamis, a town in the same island, in order to engage the Phffinician 
and Ciiician fleet. Here he gained a complete victory both on sea and 
land, but was deterred, either by pestilence or famine, from the further 
prosecution of the war ; and, having been rejoined by the sixty ships from 
Egypt, sailed home to Athens. 

§ 19. After these events a pacification was concluded with Persia, 
which has sometimes, but erroneously, been called " the peace of Cimon." 
It is stated that by this compact the Persian monarch agreed not to tax 
or molest the Greek colonies on the coast of Asia Minor, nor to send any 
vessels of war westward of Phaselis in Lycia, or within the Cyanean 
rocks at the junction of the Euxine with the Thracian Bosporus ; the 
Athenians on their side undertaking to leave the Persians in undisturbed 
possession of Cyjirus and Egypt. Even if no treaty was actually con- 
cluded, the existence of such a state of relations between Greece and 
Persia at this time must be recognized as an historical fact, and the war 
between them considered as now brought to a conclusion. 

§ 20. During the progress of these events the states which formed the 
Confederacy of Delos, with the exception of Chios, Lesbos, and Samos, 
had gradually become, instead of the active allies of Athens, her disarmed 
and passive tributaries. Even the custody of the fund had been trans- 
ferred from Delos to Athens, but we are unable to specify the precise 



246 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIIl. 

time at which this change took place. This transfer marked the subjec- 
tion of the confederates as complete : yet it is said to have been made 
with the concurrence of the Samians ; and it is probable that Delos would 
have been an Unsafe place for the deposit of so large a treasure. The 
purpose for which the confederacy had been originally organized disap- 
peared with the Persian peace ; yet what may now be called Imperial 
Athens continued, for her own ends, to exercise her prerogatives as head 
of the league. Her alliances, as we have seen, had likewise been ex- 
tended in Continental Greece, Avhere they embraced Megara, Boeotia, Pho- 
cis, Locris ; together with Trcezen and Achaia in Peloponnesus. Of these 
allies some were merely bound to military service and a conformity of 
foreign policy, whilst others were dependent tributaries. Of the former 
kind were the states just mentioned, together with Chios, Lesbos, and Sa- 
mos ; whilst in the latter were comprehended all the remaining members 
of the Confederacy of Delos, as well as the recently conquered ^gina. 
Such was the position of Athens in the year 448 b. c, the period of her 
greatest power and prosperity. From this time her empire began to de- 
cline ; whilst Sparta, and other watchful and jealous enemies, stood ever 
ready to strike a blow. 

§ 21. In the following year (b. c. 447) a revolution in Boeotia deprived 
Athens of her ascendency in that country. This, as_,we have seen, was 
altogether political, being founded Ib the democracies which she had 
established in the Boeotian towns after the battle of OEnophyta. These 
measures had not been effected without producing a numerous and power- 
ful class of discontented exiles, who, being joined by other malecontents 
from Phocis, Locris, and other places, succeeded in seizing Orchomenus, 
Chasronea, and a few more unimportant towns of Boeotia. With an over- 
weening contemj^t of their enemies, a small band of one thousand Athe- 
nian hoplites, chiefly composed of youthful volunteers belonging to the 
best Athenian families, together with a few auxiliaries, marched under 
the command of Tolmides to put down the revolt, in direct opposition to 
the advice of Pericles, who adjured them to wait and collect a more nu- 
merous force. The enterprise proved disastrous in the extreme. Tolmides 
succeeded, indeed, in retaking Ch^eronea and garrisoning it with an Athe- 
nian force ; but whilst his small army was retiring from the place, it was 
sui-prised by the enemy and totally defeated. Tolmides himself fell in 
the engagement, together with many of the hoplites, whilst a still larger 
number were taken prisoners. This last circumstance proved fatal to the 
mterests of Athens in Boeotia. In order to recover these prisoners, she 
agreed to evacuate Boeotia, to restore the exiles, and to permit the re- 
establishment of the aristocracies which she had formerly overthrown. 
Thus all Boeotia, with the exception of Plataea, once more stood opposed, 
and indeed doubly hostile, to Athens. 

But the Athenian reverses did not end here. The expulsion of the 



B. C. 445.] DECLINE OF THE ATHENIAN POWER. 247 

partisans of Athens from the government of Phocis and Locris, and the 
revolt of Euboea and Megara, were announced in quick succession ; whilst 
to crown all, the Spartans, who were now set free to act by the termina- 
tion of the five years' truce, were preparing to invade Attica itself. The 
youtliful Pleistoanax, king of Sparta, actually penetrated, with an army 
of Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesian allies, as far as the neighborhood 
of Eleusis ; and the capital itself, it is said, was saved only by Pericles 
having bribed the Spartan monarch, as well as Cleandrides, his adjutant 
and counsellor, to evacuate the country. The story was at least believed 
at Sparta ; for both Pleistoanax and Cleandrides were found guilty of 
corruption and sent into banishment. 

§ 22. Pericles had been recalled by the Spartan invasion from an ex- 
pedition which he had undertaken for the reconquest of Euboea, and which 
he resumed as soon as the Spartans had departed from Attica. With an 
overwhelming force of fifty triremes and five thousand hoplites he soon 
succeeded in reducing the island to obedience, in some parts of which the 
land-owners were expelled and their properties given to Athenian cleruchs 
or colonists. But this was the only possession which Athens succeeded 
in recovering. Her empire on land had vanished more speedily than it 
had been acquired ; whilst in the distance loomed the danger of an exten- 
sive and formidable confederacy against her, reahzed some years after- 
wards by the Peloponnesian war, and not undeservedly provoked by her 
aggressive schemes of conquest and empire. Thus both her present posi- 
tion and her future prospects were well calculated to fill the Athenians, 
and their leader Pericles, with apprehension and alarm ; and under these 
feelings of despondency they were induced to conclude, at the beginning 
of the year b. c. 445, a thirty years' truce with Sparta and her allies, by 
which they consented to abandon all the acquisitions which they had made 
in Peloponnesus, and to leave Megara to be included among the Pelopon- 
nesian allies of Sparta. 



248 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXIV. 




The Acropolis restored. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

FBOM THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE TO THE WAR BETWEEN CORINTH 
AND CORCYRA. 



1 1. State of Parties at Athens. Thucydides. § 2. Opposite Political Views. § 3. Ostra 
cism of Thucydides. Administration of Pericles. He adorns Athens. His Foreign 
Policy. § 4. Athenian Colonization. Cleruchise. Thurii and Amphipolis. § 5. Nature 
of the Athenian Maritime Empire. Amount of Tribute. Oppressions. ^ 6. Eevolt of 
Samos. Reduction of the Island by Pericles. 

§ 1. The aristocratical party at Athens had been nearly annihilated 
by the measures of Pericles recorded in the preceding chapter. In order 
to make the final effort against the policy of that statesman, the rem- 
nant of this party had united themselves under Thucydides, the son of 
Melesias. Thucydides — who must not be confounded with his name- 
sake, the great historian — was a relative of Cimon's, to whose political 
principles he succeeded. In ability and character he differed considerably 
from Cimoiv He was not much distinguished as a military man ; but as 
a statesman and orator he might even bear some comparison with his 
great opponent, Pericles. Thucydides, however, had not the advantage of 
being on the popular side ; and his manner of leading the opposition soon 
proved the ruin both of himself and of his party. The high character and 
great services of Aristeides and Cimon, the conciliatory manners of both, 
and especially the affable and generous temper of Cimon, had, in spite of 
their unpopular views, secured them considerable influence. Thucydides, 
on the contrary, does not appear to have been distinguished by any of 



B. C. 445.] STATE OF PARTIES AT ATHENS. 249 

these qualities ; and though the steps which he took to give his ^arty a 
stronger organization in the assembly at first enabled him to make head 
against Pericles, yet they ultimately proved the cause of his overthrow. 
Not only were his adherents urged to a more regulai' attendance in the 
assembly, but they were also instructed to take up a separate and distinct 
position on the benches ; and thus, instead of being mixed as before with 
the general mass of citizens, they became a regularly organized party. 
This arrangement seemed at first to lend them strength. Their applause 
or dissent, being more concentrated, produced a greater efiect. At any 
sudden turn in a debate they were in a better position to concert their 
measures, and could more readily put forward their best speakers accord- 
ing to emergencies. But these advantages were counterbalanced by still 
gi-eater di-awbacks. A little knot of men, Avho from a particular corner 
of the ecclesia were constantly opposing the most popular measures, natu- 
rally incurred a great share of odium and ' suspicion ; but M'hat was still 
worse, the paucity of their numbers — and from their position they could 
easily be counted — was soon remarked ; and they then began to fall into 
contempt, and were designated as The Few. 

§ 2. The points of dispute between the two parties were much the same 
as they had been in the time of Cimon. Thucydides and his followers 
were for maintaining amicable relations with the rest of Greece, and were 
opposed to the more popular notion of extending the Athenian dominion 
even at the risk of incurring the hostility of the other Grecian states. They 
were of opinion that all their efforts should be directed against the com- 
mon enemy, the Persians ; and that the advantages which Athens derived 
from the Confederacy of Delos should be strictly and honestly applied to 
the purposes for which that confederacy had been formed. With regard 
to this subject the adfhinistration of Pericles had produced a fresh point 
of contention. The vast amount of treasure accumulated at Athens from 
the tribute paid by the allies was more than sufficient for any apprehended 
necessities of defence, and Pericles applied the surplus to strengthening 
and beautifying the city. Thucydides complained that, by this misappli- 
cation of the common fund, Athens was disgraced in the eyes of Greece. 
Pericles, on the other hand, contended that, so long as he reserved suffi- 
cient to guarantee security against the Persians, he was perfectly at lib- 
erty to apply the surplus to Athenian purposes. This argument is the 
argument of the strongest, and, if valid in this case, might at any time be 
applied to justify the grossest abuses of power. The best that we can say 
in favor of the Athenians is, that, if they were strong enough to commit 
this injustice, they were also enlightened enough to apply the proceeds 
in producing works of art that have excited the wonder and admiration of 
the world. Other conquerors have often contented themselves with carry- 
ing off the works of others ; the Athenians had genius enough to produce 
their own. But we can hardly justify the means by pointing to the result. 
32 



250 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chai XXIV 

§ 3. From the opposition of Thucydides, Pericles was released by 
ostracism ; though by which party such a step was proposed cannot be 
determined. Thucydides went into banishment. This event, which prob- 
ably took place about two years after the conclusion of the Thirty Years' 
Truce, completely broke up the aristocratical party ; and for the remainder 
of his life Pericles enjoyed the sole direction of affairs. His views were 
of the most lofty kind. Athens was to become the capital of Greece, the 
centre of art and refinement, and at the same time of those democratical 
theories which formed the beau ideal of the Athenian notions of govern- 
ment. In her external appearance the city was to be rendered worthy of 
the high position to which she aspired, by the beauty and splendor of her 
public buildings, by her works of art in sculpture, architecture, and paint- 
ing, and by the pomp and magnificence of her rehgious festivals. All 
these objects Athens was enabled to attain in an incredibly short space of 
time, through the genius and energy of her citizens and the vast resources 
at her command. No state has ever exhibited so much intellectual ac- 
tivity and so great a progress m art as was displayed by Athens in the 
period which elapsed between the Thirty Years' Truce and the breaking 
out of the Peloponnesian war. But of the literature of this period, as well 
as of the great works of art produced in it, an account is given in another 
place,* and it will sufiice to mention briefly here the mdre important 
structures with which Athens was adorned, during the administration of 
Pericles. On the Acropolis rose the magnificent temple of Athena, called 
the Parthenon, built from the plans of Ictinus*and Callicrates, but under 
the direction of Pheidias, who adorned it with the most beautiful sculp- 
tures, and especially with a colossal statue of Athena in ivory, foi'ty-seven 
feet in height. At the same time a theatre designed for musical perform- 
ances, called the Odeum, was erected at the soiAheastern foot of the 
Acropolis. Both these structures appear to have been finished by 437 b. c. 
Somewhat later were erected the Propyltea, or magnificent entrance to 
the Acropolis, at the western end. Besides these vast works, others were 
commenced which were interrupted by the breaking out of the Pelopon- 
nesian war, as the reconstruction of the Erechtheum, or ancient temple of 
Athena Polias ; the building of a great temple of Demeter, at Eleusis, for 
the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries ; another of Athena at Sunium, 
and one of Nemesis at Rhamnus. Besides these ornamental works, 
Pericles undertook others of a more useful kind. In order to render the 
communication between Athens and Peirjeus still more secure, he con- 
structed a third long wall, between the two already built, running parallel 
to, and at a short distance from, the one which united the city to Peirgeus. 
At the same time Peirseus itself was improved and beautified, and a new 
dock and arsenal constructed, said to have cost one thousand talents. The 

* See below, Chap. XXXIV., XXXV. 



B. C. 443.] ATHENIAN COLONIES. 251 

whole cost of these improvements was estimated at three thousand talents, 
or about £ 732,000 (nearly $3,170,000). 

In this part of his plans Pericles may be said to have been entirely 
successful. The beautiful works which arose under his superintendence 
established the empire of Athenian taste, not only for his own time but for 
all succeeding ages. But the other and more substantial part of his proj- 
ects — the establishment of the material empire of Athens, of which these 
works were to be but the type and ornament — was founded on a miscal- 
culation of the physical strength and resources of his country ; and after 
involving Athens, as will be seen in the sequel, in a long series of suffer- 
ing and misfortune, ended at last in her degradation and ruin. 

§ 4. Colonization, for which the genius and inclination of the Athenians 
had always been suited, was another and safer method adopted by Pericles 
for extending the inHuence and empire of Athens. The settlements made 
under his auspices were of two kinds, Gleruchies,* and regular colonies. 
The former mode was exclusively Athenian. It consisted in the allot- 
ment of land in conquered or subject countries to certain bodies of Athe- 
nians, who continued to retain all their original rights of citizenship. This 
circumstance, as well as the convenience of entering upon land already in a 
state of cultivation, instead of having to reclaim it from the rude condition 
of nature, seems to have rendered such a mode of settlement much pre- 
ferred by the Athenians. The earliest instance which we find of it is ia 
the year b. c. o06, when four thousand Athenians entered upon the 
domains of the Chalcidian knights. But it was under Pericles that this 
system was most extensively adopted. During his administration one 
thousand Athenian citizens were settled in the Thracian Chersonese, five 
hundred in Naxos, and two hundred and fifty in Andros. His expeditions 
for this purpose even extended into the Euxine. From Sinope, on the 
shores of that sea, he expelled the despot Timesilaus and his pai-ty, whose 
estates were confiscated, and assigned for the maintenance of six hundred 
Athenian citizens. The islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, as well 
as a large tract in the North of Euboea, were also completely occupied by 
Athenian proprietors. 

The most important colonies settled by Pericles were those of Thurii and 
Amphipolis. Since the destruction of Sybaris by the Crotoniates, in b. c. 
509, the former inhabitants had lived dispersed in the adjoining terri- 
tory along the Gulf of Tarentum. They had in vain requested Sparta to 
recolonize them, and now applied to Pericles, who granted then- request. 
In B. c. 443 he sent out a colony to found Thurii, near the site of the 
ancient Sybaris. But though established under the auspices of Athens, 
Thurii can hardly be considered an Athenian colony, since it contained 
settlers from almost all parts of Greece. Among those who joined thia 

* KXr]pov)(lai. 



252 HISTORT OF GKEECE. [ClIAP. XXIV. 

colony were the historian Herodotus and the orator Lysias. The colony 
of Amphijjolis was founded some years later (b. c. 437), under the conduct 
of AgDon. But here also the proportion of Athenian settlers was small. 
Amphipolis was in fact only a new name for Ennea Hodoi, to colonize 
which i)!ace the Athenians, as before related, had already made some 
unsuecessflil attempts. They now succeeded in maintaining their gi-ound 
against the Edonians, and Amphipolis became an impcirtant Athenian 
dependency with reference to Thrace and Macedonia. 

§ o. Siicli were the schemes of Pericles for promoting the empire of 
Athens. That empire, since the conclusion of the Thirty Years' Truce, 
had again become exclusively maritime. Yet even among the subjects 
and allies united with Athens by the Confederacy of Delos, her sway was 
borne with growing discontent. One of the chief causes of this dissatisfac- 
tion was the amount of the tribute exacted by the Athenians, as well as 
their misapplication of the funds. During the administration of Pericles, 
the rate of contribution was raised upwards of thirty per cent., although 
the purpose for which the tribute was originally levied had almost entirely 
ceased. In the time of Aristeides and Cimon,when an active war was car- 
rying on against the Persians, the sum annually collected amounted to four 
hundred and sixty talents. In the time of Pericles, although that war had 
been brought to a close by what has been called the peace of Cimon, and 
though the only armament still maintained for the ostensible purposes of 
the confederacy was a fleet of sixty triremes, which cruised in the ^ggean, 
the tribute had nevertheless increased to the annual sum of six hundred 
talents. The importance of this tribute to the Athenians may be esti- 
mated from the fact that it formed considerably more than half of their 
whole revenue ; for their income from other sources amounted only to four 
hundred talents. It may be said, indeed, that Greece was not even yet 
wholly secure from another Persian invasion ; and that Athens was there- 
fore justified in continuing to collect the tribute, out of which, it must in 
justice to Pericles be admitted, a large sum had been laid by, amounting, 
when the Peloponnesian war broke out, to six thousand talents. But that 
there was no longer much danger to be apprehended from the Persians is 
shown by subsequent events ; and though it is true .that Pericles saved a 
large sum, yet he had spent much in decorating Athens ; and the surplus 
was ultimately applied, not for the purposes of the league, but in defend- 
ing Athens from enemies which her aggressive policy had provoked. 

But the tribute was not the only grievance of which the allies had to 
complain. Of all the members of the Confederacy of Delos, the islands 
of Chios, Samos, and Lesbos were the only states which now held the 
footing of independent allies ; that is, they alone were allowed to retain 
their ships and fortifications, and were only called upon to furnish mili- 
tary and naval aid when required. The other members of the league, 
Bome of them indeed with their own consent, had been deprived of their 



B.C. 440.] REDUCTION OF SAMOS. 253 

navy and reduced to the condition of tributaries. The dehberative synod 
for discussing and conducting the affairs of the league had been discon- 
tinued, probably from the time when the treasury was removed from 
Delos to Athens; whilst the Hellenotamiae had been converted into a 
board consisting solely of Athenians. Notwithstanding, therefore, the 
seeming independence of the three islands just mentioned, the Athe- 
nians were in fact the sole arbiters of the affairs of the league, and 
the sole administrators of the fund. Another grievance was the trans- 
ference to Athens of all lawsuits, at least of all public suits; for on 
this subject we are unable to draw the line distinctly. In criminal 
cases, at all events, the allies seem to have been deprived of the 
power to inflict capital punishment. It can scarcely be doubted that 
even private suits in which an Athenian was concerned were referred 
to Athens. In some cases, it is true, the allies may have derived 
benefit from a trial before the Athenian people, as the dicasteries were 
then constituted ; but on the whole, the practice can only be regarded as 
a means and a badge of their subjection. Besides all these causes of 
complaint, the allies had often to endure the oppressions and exactions 
of Athenian officers both military and naval, as well as of the rich and 
powerful Athenian citizens settled among them. 

Many of these abuses had no doubt arisen before the time of Pericles ; 
but the excuse for them had at all events ceased to exist with the death of 
Cimon and the extinction of the Persian war. To expect that the Athe- 
nians should have voluntarily relinquished the advantages derived from 
them might be to demand too much of human nature, especially as society 
was then constituted ; and the Athenians perhaps, on the whole, did not 
abuse their power to a greater extent than many other nations both in 
ancient and modern times. With this argument for their exculpation we 
must rest content ; for it is the only one. They were neither better nor 
worse than other people. The allurement, it must be confessed, was a 
splendid one. By means of the league Athens had become the mistress 
of many scattered cities, formerly her equals ; and the term of despot over 
them was applied to her not only by her enemies, but adopted m her 
overweening confidence and pride by herself. 

§ 6. The principal event in the external history of Athens during the 
period comprised in the present chapter was the subjugation of the island 
of Samos, the most important of the three islands which still retained their 
independence. In B. c. 440, the Milesians, who had been defeated by the 
Samians in a war respecting the possession of Priene, lodged a formal 
complaint in Athens against the Samians ; and it was seconded by a party 
in Samos itself, who were adverse to the oligarchical form of govern- 
ment established there. As the Samians refused to submit to the arbi- 
tration of the Athenians, the latter resolved to reduce them to obe- 
dience by force ; and for that purpose despatched an armament of forty 



254 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXIV. 

ships to Samos, under the command of Pericles, who established a demo- 
craticai form of government in the island, and carried away hostages 
belonging to the first Samian families, whom he deposited in the isle of 
Lemnos. But no sooner had Pericles departed than some of the oligar- 
chical party, supported by Pissuthnes, satrap of Sardis, passed over in the 
night-time to Samos, overpowered the small Athenian garrison which had 
been left by Pericles, and abolished the democracy. They then proceeded 
to Lemnos, and, having regained possession of the hostages, proclaimed an 
open revolt against Athens, in which they were joined by Byzantium. 

When these tidings reached Athens a fleet of sixty triremes imme- 
diately sailed for Samos. Pericles was again one of the ten strategi or 
generals in command of the expedition, and among his colleagues was 
Sophocles, the tragic poet. After several engagements between the hostile 
fleets, the Samians were obhged to abandon the sea and take refuge in 
their city, which, after enduring a siege of nine months, was forced to 
capitulate. 

The Samians were compelled to raze their fortifications, to surrender 
their fleet, to give hostages for their future conduct, and to pay the 
expenses of the war, amounting to one thousand talents. The Byzantines 
submitted at the same time. During these operations, it was a point dis- 
puted among the states opposed to Athens whether the Samians should be 
assisted in their revolt ; a question decided in the negative, cliiefly through 
the influence of the Corinthians, who maintained the right of every con- 
federacy to punish its refractory members. 

The triumphs and the power of Athens were no doubt regarded with 
fear and jealousy by her rivals ; but the conquest of Samos was not fol- 
lowed by any open manifestation of hostility. A general impression how- 
ever prevailed, that sooner or later a war must ensue ; but men looked 
forwards to it with fear and trembling, from a conviction of the internecine 
character which it must necessarily assume. It was a hollow peace, 
which the most trifling events might disturb. The train was already laid ; 
and an apparently unimportant event, which occured in b. c. 435 in a 
remote corner of Greece, kindled the spark which was to produce the 
conflagration. This was the quarrel between Corinth and Corcyra, which 
will be detailed in the following chapter. 




<£o0okn 
Bust of the poet Sophoole 



B. C. 435.] QUARREL BETWEEN CORINTH AND CORCTRA. 



255 




The Propylsea of the Acropolis, restored. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



CAUSES OF THE PELOPONNESIAN "WAR. 



1 1. Quarrel between Corinth and Corcyra. § 2. Corcyrsean Embassy to Athens. De 
cision of the Athenians. § 3. They send a Fleet to Corcyra. Naval Engagements. 
Defeat of the Corinthians. § 4. Revolt of Potidsea. § 5. Congress of the Peloponnesian 
Allies at Sparta. The Spartans decide for War. § 6. Second Congress. The Allies 
resolve upon War. § 7. The Lacedsemonians require the Athenians to expel Pericles. 
§ 8. Attacks upon Pericles, Aspasia, and Anaxagoras. Imprisonment and Death of 
Pheidias. ^ 9- Further Requisitions of the Lacedsemonians. Rejected by the Athe- 
nians. § 10. The Thebans surprise Plataa. § 11. The Athenians prepare for War. 
Portents. § 12. Forces of the Lacedsemonians and Athenians. § 13. The Pelopon 
nesian Army assembles at the Isthmus of Corinth. 

§ 1. On the coast of Illyria, near the site of the modern Durazzo, the 
Corcyrteans had founded the city of Epidamnus. Corcyra (now Corfu) 
was itself a colony of Corinth ; and, though long at enmity with its mother 
country, was forced, according to the time-hallowed custom of the Greeks 
in such matters, to select the founder or oekist * of Epidamnus from the 
Corinthians. Accordingly Corinth became the metropolis of Epidamnus 
also. At the time of which we speak, the Epidamnians were hard pressed 
by the Illyrians, led by some oligarcliical exiles of their oavh city, whom 
they had expelled in consequence of a domestic sedition. In their distress 
they applied to Corcyra for assistance ; which the Corcyrasans, being prin- 
cipally connected with the Epidamnian oligarchy, refused. The Epidam- 
nians, after consulting the oracle of Delphi, then sought help from the 
Corinthians, who undertook to assist them, and organized an expedition 

* OtKt'oTIJS. 



256 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ClIAI-. XXV. 

for that purpose, consisting partly of new settlers, and partly of a military 
force. The Corcyraeans highly resented this interference, proceeded to 
restore the Epidamnian oligarchs, and with a fleet of forty ships blockaded 
the town and its new Corinthian garrison. Hereupon the Corinthians 
fitted out a still stronger expedition, for which they collected both ships 
and money from their allies. The Corcyreeans, having made a fruitless 
attempt to persuade the Corinthians to refer the matter to arbitration, 
prepared to meet the blow. Their fleet, the best in Greece after that of 
Athens, completely defeated the Corinthians off Cape Actium ; and on 
the same day Epidamnus surrendered to their blockading squadron 
(b. c. 435). 

§ 2. Deeply humbled by this defeat, the Corinthians spent the two fol- 
lowing years in active preparations for retrieving it. They got ready 
ninety well-manned ships of their own ; and by active exertions among 
their allies, they were in a condition, in the third year after their disgrace, 
to put to sea with a fleet of one hundred and fifty sail. The Corc}'rjeans, 
who had not enrolled themselves either in the Lacedeemonian or Athenian 
alliance, and therefore stood alone, were greatly alarmed at these prepara- 
tions. They now. resolved to remedy this deficiency ; and as Corinth 
belonged to the Lacedaemonian alliance, the Corcyrseans had no option, < 
and were obliged to apply to Athens. Ambassadors were accordingly 
despatched to that city, who, being introduced into the assembly, endeav- 
ored to set in a striking light the great accession of naval power which 
the Athenians would derive from an alliance with the Corcyrasans. The 
Corinthians, who had also sent an embassy to Athens, replied to the argu- 
ments of the Corcyr^an envoys, appeahng to the terms of the Thirty 
Years' Truce, and reminding the Athenians that it Avas through the repre- 
sentations of the Corinthians that the Peloponnesian allies had not 
assisted the Samians in their late revolt. The opinions of the Athenian 
assembly were much divided on the subject ; but the views of Pericles and 
other speakers at length prevailed. They urged that, whatever course 
might now be taken, war could not iiltimately be avoided ; and that there- 
fore the more prudent course was to avail themselves of the increase of 
strength offered by the CorcyrEean alliance, rather than to be at last driven 
to undertake the war at a comparative disadvantage. To avoid, however, 
an open infringement of the Thirty Years' Truce,, a middle course was 
adopted. It was resolved to conclude only a defensive allianjee with Cor- 
cyra; that is, to defend the Corcyrseans in; case their territpiigs were 
actually invaded by the Corinthians, but beyond that not to lend them any 
active assistance. ^ ^ 

§ 3, By entering upon this merely defensive ^illiance the Athenians ' 
also hoped to stand aloof and see the Corinthian and Corcyi'jean fleets 
mutually destroy one another ; and it was probably in accordance with— i,,^^ 
this policy that only a small squadron often triremes, under Ih^e command 



B. C. 433.] QUAKREL BETWEEN CORINTH AND CORCYRA. 257 

of Lacedaemonius the son of Cimon, was despatched to the assistance of 
the Corcyrgeans. The Corinthian fleet of one hundred and fifty sail took 
up its station at Cape Cheixneriuna on the coast of Epeirus ; where the 
Corinthians estabHshed a naval camp, and summoned to their assistance 
the friendly Epeirot tribes. The Corcyrsean fleet of one hundred and ten 
sail, together with ten Athenian ships, was stationed at one of the adjoin- 
ing islands called Sybota. A battle speedily ensued, which, for the num- 
ber of ships engaged, was the greatest yet fought between fleets entirely 
Grecian. Neither side, however, had yet adopted the Athenian tactics. 
They had no conception of that mode of attack in which the ship itsetf, by 
the method of handling it, became a more important instrument than the 
crew by which it was manned. Their only idea of a naval engagement 
was to lay the ships alongside one another, and to leave the hoplites on 
deck to decide the combat after the fashion of a land fight. At first Lace- 
daemonius, in accordance with his instructions, took no part in the battle, 
though he afforded all the assistance he could to the Corcyrseans by ma- 
noeuvring as if he were preparing to engage. After a hard-fought day, 
victory finally declared in favor of the Corinthians. The Athenians now 
abandoned their neutrality, and did all in their power to save the flying 
Corcyrseans from their pursuers. This action took place early in the 
morning ; and the Corinthians, after returning to the spot where it had 
been fought, in order to pick up their own dead and wounded, prepared to 
renew the attack in the afternoon, and to effect a landing at Corcyra. 
The Corcyrteans made the best preparations they could to receive them, 
and the Athenians, who were now within the strict letter of their instruc- 
tions, determined to give their new allies all the assistance in their power. 
The war psean had been sounded, and the Corinthian line was in full ad- 
vance, when suddenly it tacked and stood away to the coast of Epeirus. 
This unexpected retreat was caused by the appearance of twenty Athe- 
nian vessels in the distance, wloich the Corinthians believed to be the 
advanced guard of a still larger fleet. But though this was not the case, 
the succor proved sufficient to deter the Corinthians from any further 
hostilities. Drawing up their ships along the coast of Epeirus, they sent 
a few men in a small boat to remonstrate with the Athenians for having 
violated the truce ; and finding from the parley that the Athenians did not 
mean to undertake offensive operations against them, they sailed home- 
wards with their whole fleet, after erecting a trophy at Sybota. On 
reaching Corinth eight hundred of their prisoners were sold as slaves ; 
but the remaining two hundred and fifty, many of whom belonged to the 
first families in Corcyra, though detained in custody, were treated with 
peculiar kindness, in the hope that they would eventually establish in 
that island a party favorable to Corinth. These events took place in the 
year b, c. 432. 

§ 4. -The Corinthians were naturally incensed at the conduct of Athens, 
33 



258 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXV. 

and it is not surprising that they should have watched for an opportunity 
of revenge. This was soon afforded them by the enmity of the Macedo- 
nian prince Perdiccas towards the Athenians. Offended with the Athe- 
nians for having received into their alliance his two brothers PhiHp and 
Derdas, with whom he was at open variance, Perdiccas exerted all his 
efforts to injure Athens. He incited her tributaries among the Chalcidi- 
ans and Bottiseans to revolt, including Potidsea, a town seated on the isth- 
mus of Pallene. Potidsea, though now a tributary of Atheijs, was origi- 
nally a colony of the Corinthians, towards whom it stiU owed a sort of 
metropolitan allegiance, and received from them certain annual magistrates 
called Epidemiurgi.* Aware of the hostile feeling entertained at Corinth 
against the Athenians, Perdiccas not only sent envoys to that city to con- 
cert measures for a revolt of Potidsea, but also to Sparta to induce the 
Peloponnesian league to declare war against Athens. 

The Athenians were not ignorant of these proceedings. They were 
about to despatch an armament in the Thermaic Gulf, designed to act 
against Perdiccas ; and they now directed the commander of this arma- 
ment to require the Potidseans to level their walls on the side of the town 
towards the sea, to dismiss their Corinthian magistrates, and to give hos- 
tages, as a pledge of their future fidelity. Thereupon the Potidseans 
openly raised the standard of revolt, in the summer apparently of b. c. 
432. Instead of immediately blockading Potidsea, the Athenian fleet 
wasted six weeks in the siege of Therma, during which interval the 
Corinthians were enabled to throw a reinforcement of two thousand troops 
into Potidaea. Thereupon a second armament was despatched from 
Athens, and joined the former one, which was now engaged in the siege 
of Pydna on the Macedonian coast. But as the town promised to hold 
out for some time, and as the necessity for attacking Potidsea seemed 
pressing, an accommodation was patched up with Perdiccas, and the 
whole Athenian force marched over-land against Potidsea. Aristeus, the 
Corinthian general, was waiting to receive them near Olynthus, and a 
battle ensued in which the Athenians were victorious. The Corinthians 
ultimately succeeded in effecting their retreat to Potidaea ; and the Athe- 
nians, after receiving a further reinforcement, completely blockaded the 
town, both by sea and land. 

§ 5. Meanwhile the Lacedaemonians, urged on all sides by the com- 
plaints of their allies, summoned a general meeting of the Peloponnesian 
confederacy at Sparta. Besides the Corinthians other members of it had 
heavy grievances to allege against Athens. Foremost among these were 
the Megarians, who complained that their commerce had been ruined by 



* In some of the Grecian states, the executive magistrates bore the title of Demiurgi 
(BrjfiLovpyoi.) The Epidemiurgi were governors sent by the metropolis to manage th* 
affairs of the colony. — Ed. 



B.C. 432] MEETING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN ALLIES. 259 

a recent decree of the Athenians, wHch excluded them from every port 
within the Athenian jurisdiction. The pretexts for this severe measure 
were, that the Megarians had harbored runaway Athenian slaves, and had 
cultivated pieces of unappropriated and consecrated land upon the borders. 
These reasons seem frivolous ; and the real cause of the decree must no 
doubt be ascribed to the hatred which the Athenians entertained towards 
Megara, since her revolt from them fourteen years before. JEgina was 
another, though not an open, accuser. No deputy from that island actually 
appeared at the congress ; but the JEginetans loudly complained, through 
the mouths of others, that Athens withheld from them the independence 
to which they were entitled. 

The assembly having been convened, the deputies from the various 
allied cities addressed it in turn, the Corinthian envoy reserving himself 
for the last. He depicted in glowing language the ambition, the enter- 
prise, and the perseverance of Athens, which he contrasted with the over- 
cautious and inactive policy of Sparta. Addressing himself to the Spar- 
tans, he exclaimed : " The Athenians are naturally innovators, prompt 
both in deciding and in acting ; whilst you only think of keeping what 
you have got, and do even less than what positive necessity requires. 
They are bold beyond their means, venturesome beyond their judgment, 
sanguine even in desperate reverses ; you do even less than you are able 
to perform, distrust your ovm conclusions, and when in difficulties fall into 
utter despair. They never hang back, you never advance ; they love to 
serve abroad, you seem chained at home ; they believe that every new 
movement will procure them fresh advantage, you fancy that every new 
step wiU endanger what you already possess." And after telling them 
some more home-truths, he concluded with a threat, that, if they still de- 
layed to perform their duty towards their confederates, the Corinthians 
would forthwith seek some other alliance. 

An Athenian ambassador, charged with some other business, was then 
residing at Sparta ; and when the Corinthian envoy had concluded his 
address, he rose to reply to it. After denying the right of Sparta to in- 
terfere in a dispute between Corinth and Athens, he entered into a gen- 
eral vindication of the Athenian policy. He contended that empire had 
not been sought by Athens, but thrust upon her, and that she could not 
abdicate it without endangering her very existence. Pie alluded to the 
eminent services rendered by Athens to all Greece during the Persian 
war ; maintained that her empire was the natural result of her conduct in 
that conjuncture, and denied that it had been exercised with more severity 
than was necessary, or than would have been used by any other Grecian 
power, including Sparta herself. He concluded by calling upon the Lace- 
daemonians to pause before taking a step which would be irretrievable, 
and to compose all present differences by an amicable arbitration ; declar- 
mg that, should Sparta begin the war, Athens was prepared to resist her. 



260 HISTORY OF GKEECE. [Chap. XXV 

as he now called those gods to witness who had been invoked to sanc- 
tify the truce- 
After these speeches had been delivered, all strangers, including the 
Peloponnesian allies, were ordered to withdraw from the assembly, and 
the Lacedaemonians then proceeded to decide among themselves the ques- 
tion of peace or war. In this debate the Spartan king Archidaraus spoke 
strongly in favor of peace ; but the ephor Sthenelaidas, who presided 
upon this occasion in the assembly, called upon his countrymen, in a short 
and vigorous speech, to declare immediate war against Athens. The Spar- 
tan assembly was accustomed to vote by acclamation, and, on the question 
being put, the vote for war decidedly predominated. But in order to 
remove all doubts upon so important a subject, Sthenelaidas, contrary to 
the usual practice, ordered the assembly to divide, when a vast majority 
declared themselves for war. 

§ 6. Before their resolution was publicly announced, the Lacedsemoni- 
ans, with their characteristic caution, sent to consult the oracle of Delphi 
upon the subject. The god having promised them his aid, and assured 
them of success, provided they exerted themselves to obtain it, another 
congress of the allies was summoned' at Sparta. In this, as in the former 
one, the Corinthians took the most prominent part in the debate. The 
majority of the congress decided for war, thus binding the whole Pelopon- 
aesian confederacy to the same policy. This important resolution was 
adopted towards the close of b. c. 432, or early in the following year. 

§ 7. Previously to an open declaration of war, the Lacedaemonians sent 
several requisitions to Athens, intended apparently to justify the step they 
were about to take against her, in case she refused to comply with their 
demands. The first of these requisitions seems to have been a political 
manoeuvre, aimed against Pericles, their most constant and powerful 
enemy in the Athenian assembly. Pericles, as we have said, belonged to 
the Alcmaeonidaj ; a family regarded as having incurred an inexpiable 
taint through the sacrilege committed nearly two centuries before by their 
ancestor Megacles, in causing the adherents of Cylon to be slaughtered at 
the altar of the Eumenides, whither they had tied for refuge.* The 
Lacedcemonians, in now demanding that Athens should expel from her 
borders this " abomination," f hardly expected that she would consent to 
the banishment of her great statesman ; but they at all events gave his 
opponents in the assembly an opportunity to declaim against him, and to 
fix upon him the odium of being, in part at least, the cause of the im- 
pending war. 

§ 8. For Pericles, despite his influence and power, had stiU many bitter 
and active enemies, who not long before had indirectly assailed him 

* See above, p^ 88. 

+ To ayos eXaiiveiv, to expel the accursed thing. Thucyd. — Ed. 



B. C. 432.] ATTACKS UPON PERICLES. 261 

through his private connections, and even endeavored to wound his honor 
bj a charge of peculation. His mistress Aspasia belonged to that class of 
women whom the Greeks called Hetcerce, hterally " female companions," or, 
as we should designate, them, courtesans.* Many of these women were 
distinguished, not only for their beauty, but also for their wit and accom- 
plishments, and in this respect formed a striking contrast to the generality 
of Athenian ladies ; who, being destined to a life of privacy and seclusion, 
did not receive the benefit of much mental culture. Pericles, after divor- 
cing a wife with whom he had hved unhappily, took Aspasia to his house, 
and dwelt with her tUl his death on terms of the greatest afiection. Their 
intimacy with Anaxagoras, the celebrated Ionic philosopher, was made a 
handle for wounding Pericles in his tenderest relations. Paganism, not- 
withstanding its license, was, with surprising inconsistency, capable of pro- 
ducing bigots : and even at Athens the man who ventured to dispute the 
existence of a hundred gods with morals and passions somewhat worse 
than those of ordinary human nature, did so at the risk of his life. 
Anaxagoras was indicted for impiety. Aspasia was included in the same 
charge, and dragged before the dicastery by the comic poet Hermippus. 
Anaxagoras prudently fled fr""om Athens, and thus probably avoided a fate 
which in consequence of a similar accusation afterwards overtook Socrates. 
Pericles himself pleaded the cause of Aspasia. He was indeed indirectly 
implicated in the indictment ; but he felt no concern except for his 
beloved Aspasia, and on this occasion the cold and somewhat haughty 
statesman, whom the most violent storms of the assembly could not 
deprive of his self-possession, was for once seen to weep. His appeal to 
the dicastery was successful, but another trial still awaited him. An 
indictment was jJreferred against his friend, the great sculptor Pheidias, for 
embezzlement of the gold intended to adorn the celebrated ivory statue of 
Athena; and, according to some, Pericles himself was included in the 
charge of peculation. Whether Pericles Avas ever actually tried on this 
accusation is uncertain ; but at all events, if he was, there can be no doubt 
that he was honorably acquitted. The gold employed in the statue had 
been fixed in such a manner that it could be detached and weighed, and 
Pericles challenged his accusers to the proof But Pheidias did not 
escape so fortunately. There were other circumstances which rendered 
him unpopular, and amongst them the fact that he had introduced por- 

* It is not easy to define precisely the position of Aspasia. She did not belong to the 
common class of Hetcera, since she lived, in all respects, as the wife of Pericles. As the 
laws at that time severely prohibited the intermarriage of a citizen with a foreign woman, 
the offspring of such a union were, of course, in some sense illegitimate. In the case of 
Pericles and Aspasia, the relation was analogous to the left-handed marriages of modern 
princes. The fact that Aspasia stood at the head of Athenian society, and that her house 
was resorted to by not only the most eminent men of her times, but by many of the most 
respectable Athenian ladies, shows that she was not regarded by her contemporaries as the 
mistress of Pericles. — Ed. 



262 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXV 

traits both of himseF and Pericles in the sc-ulptures which adorned the 
frieze of the Parthenon. Pheidias died in prison before the day of trial ; 
and some even whispered that he had been poisoned by the enemies of 
Pericles, in order to increase the suspicions which attached to the latter. 
Another report, equally absurd and unfounded, was that Pericles, in order 
to avoid the impending accusation, kindled the Peloponnesian war. 

But although these proceedings proved that Pericles had many bitter 
enemies at Athens, still the majority of the Athenians were in his favor, 
and were not prepared to sacrifice him on account of the absurd and 
obsolete charge which the Lacediemonians now thought fit to bring against 
him. They retorted that the Spartans themselves had some accounts to 
settle on the score of sacrilege, and required them to clear themselves 
from having violated the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Ta^narus by 
dragging away and slaying the Helots who had taken refuge there, as 
well as from their impiety in starving to death the regent Pausanias in 
the temple of Athena Chalcioecus. 

§ 9. Having failed in this requisition, the Lacedaemonians brought' 
forward others more pertinent to the matter in hand. They demanded 
that the Athenians should withdraw their troops from Potideea, restore 
the independence of -S^gina, and repeal their decree against the Megarians. 
On the last of these demands they laid particular stress, and intimated that 
war might be avoided by a compliance with it. But this was rejected, as 
well as the others. The Lacedasmonians then sent their nltimatum. 
They declared that they wished for peace, and that it would not be inter- 
rupted if the Athenians consented to recognize the independence of the 
other Grecian states. 

This requisition, so different from and so much more general than the 
preceding demands, showed clearly enough that the Lacedaemonians were 
resolved upon war. The character of this requisition seems to indicate 
that it had been adopted as a sort of manifesto in order to enlist the sym- 
pathy of all Greece in favor of the Peloponnesian league, which now pro- 
fessed to stand forwards as the champion of its liberties. That this was 
the view taken of it by the Athenian assembly may be inferred from the 
debate that ensued, in which the principal topic was the Megarian decree, 
and the possibility of still avoiding a war by its repeal. On this point a 
warm discussion took place. A majority of the assembly seemed still 
inclined for peace. But Pericles, in a speech of surpassing eloquence and 
power, again contended that no concessions could ultimately avert a war, 
and, after passing in review the comparative forces of Athens and her 
opponents, concluded by persuading the Athenians to return for answer, 
that they were ready to give satisfaction respecting any matter which 
properly concerned the Thirty Years' Truce, and that they would forbear 
from commencing hostilities ; but that at the same time they were pre- 
pared to repel force by force. This answer was accordingly adopted. 



B. C. 431.] THE THEBANS SURPRISE PLAT^A. 263 

though not without much reluctance, and communicated to the Spartan 
envoys. 

§ 10. Before any actual declaration of war, and whilst both parties 
stood in suspense, hostilities were begun in the spring of b. c. 431 by a 
treacherous attack of the Thebans upon Platsea. Though Boeotians by 
descent, the Platteans did not belong to the Boeotian league ; but, as we 
have seen, had long been in alhance with the Athenians, and enjoyed 
in some degree a communion of their civil rights. Hence they were 
regarded with hatred and jealousy by the Thebans, which sentiments were 
also shared by a small oligarchical faction in Plataea itself. The state of 
aifaii'S in Greece seemed favorable for striking a secret and unexpected 
blow. Naucleides, the head of the oKgarchical faction at Platsea, entered 
into a cori'espondence with the Thebans, and it was agreed to surprise 
the town at a time when the citizens were off their guard. During a 
rehgious festival, and in a rainy night, a body of more than three hun- 
dred Thebans presented themselves before one of the gates of Platsea, 
and were admitted by Naucleides and his partisans. The latter wished 
to conduct the Thebans at once to the houses of their chief poUtical 
opponents, in order that they might be secured or made away with. 
The Thebans, however, hesitated to commit so gross a piece of vio- 
lence. They expected to be reinforced the next day by the larger 
part of the Theban army, when they should be able to dictate their 
own terms Avithout having recourse to the invidious act wlaich had been 
proposed to them. They accordingly took up a position in the agora, or 
market-place, and directed their herald to summon all the inhabitants 
whose political views coincided with their own, to come and join their 
ranks. The first feeling of the Platasans was one of surprise and alarm 
on being roused from their sleep with the astounding intelligence that 
their ancient enemies were in possession of their town. But when the 
small number of the Thebans began to be ascertained, they took heart, 
established communications with one another by breaking through the 
walls of their houses, and, having barricaded the streets with wagons, fell 
upon the enemy a little before daybreak. The Thebans formed in close 
order, and defended themselves as well as they could. But they were 
exhausted by their midnight march through a soaking rain ; they were 
unacquainted with the narrow, crooked streets of the town, now choked 
with mud and obstructed by barricades ; whilst the women hurling the 
tiles from the housetops, with loud yells and execrations, completed theii 
confusion and dismay. A very few succeeded in escaping over the walls. 
The great majority, mistaking the folding-doors of a large granary for the 
city gates, rushed in and were made prisoners. The march of the rein- 
forcement had been delayed by the rain, which had rendered the river 
Asopus scarcely fordable ; and when they at last arrived, they found a'U 
their countrymen either slain or captured. 

The Thebans without the walls now proceeded to lay hands on f^H the 



26,4 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP, XXV. 

persons and property they could find, as pledges for the restoration of the 
prisoners. Hereupon the Platseans despatched a herald to remonstrate 
against this flagrant breach of the existing peace, promising at the same 
time, that, if they retired, the prisoners should be given up, but if not, that 
they would be immediately put to death. The Thebans withdrew on this 
understanding. But no sooner were they gone than the Platseans, instead 
of observing the conditions, removed aU their movable property from the 
country into the town, and then massacred all the prisoners, to the number 
of one hundred and eighty. 

§ 11. At the first entrance of the Thebans into Platsea a messenger had 
been despatched to Athens with the news, and a second one after their 
capture. The Athenians immediately sent a herald to enjoin the Platseans 
to take no steps without their concurrence ; but he arrived too late, and 
the prisoners were already slain. So striking an incident as this attempt 
on the part of the Thebans could not fail to produce an immediate war, 
and the Athenians concerted their measures accordingly. They imme- 
diately issued orders for seizing all Boeotians who might happen to be in 
Attica, placed an Athenian garrison in Platsea, and removed thence all 
the women and other inhabitants incapable of taking a part in its defence. 
War was now fairly kindled. AU Greece looked on in suspense as its two 
leading cities were about to engage in a strife of which no man could fore- 
see the end ; but the youth, with which both Athens and Peloponnesus then 
abounded, having had no experience in the bitter calamities of war, rushed 
into it with ardor. Every city, nay, almost every individual, seemed 
desirous of taking a part in it ; most of them, however, from a feeling 
of hatred against Athens, and with a desire either of avoiding or 
of being relieved from her yoke. The predictions of soothsayers and 
oracles were heard on all sides, whilst natural portents were eagerly 
inquired after and interpreted. A recent earthquake in Delos, which had 
never before experienced such a calamity, seemed to foreshadow the 
approaching struggle, and to form a fitting introduction to a period which 
was to be marked, not only by the usual horrors of war, but by the calami- 
ties of earthquakes, drought, famine, and pestilence. 

§ 12. The nature of the preparations and the amount of forces on both 
sides were well calculated to excite these apprehensions. On the side 
of Sparta was ranged the whole of Peloponnesus, — except Argos and 
Achaia, — together with the Megarians, Boeotians, Phocians, Opuntian Lo- 
crians, Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians. The force collected from 
these tribes consisted chiefly of hoplites, or heavy-armed foot-soldiers ; but 
Bceotia, Phocis, and Locris also supplied some excellent cavalry. A good 
navy was the great deficiency on the side of the Peloponnesians, though 
Corinth and several other cities furnished ships. Yet, with the assistance 
of the Dorian cities in Italy and Sicily, they hoped to collect a fleet of 
five hundred triremes ; and they even designed to apply to the Persian 
king, and thus bring a Phoenician fleet again to act against Athens. 



B.C. 431.] FORCES OF SPARTA AND ATHPNS. 265 

The allies of Athens, with the exception of the Thessalians, Acarna- 
nians, Messenians at Naupactus, and Platseans, were all insular, and con- 
sisted of the Chians, Lesbians, Corcyrseans, and Zacynthians, and shortly 
afterwards of the Cephallenians. To these must be added her tributary 
towns on the coast of Thrace and Asia IMinor, together with all the isl- 
ands north of Crete, except Melos and Thera. The resources at Atheps 
immediately available were very great. They consisted of 300 triremes 
ready for active service, 1,200 cavalry, 1,600 bowmen, and 29,000 hophtes, 
for the most part Athenian citizens. Of these, 13,000 formed the flower 
of the army, whilst the rest were employed in garrison duty in Athens 
and the ports, and in the defence of the long walls. In the treasury of 
the AcropoHs was the large sum of 6,000 talents, or about £ 1,400,000 
sterling, in coined silver. This reserve had at one time amounted to 
9,700 talents, but had been reduced to the sum stated by the architectural 
improvements in Athens, and by the siege of Potidsea. The plate and 
votive offerings in the temples, available in case of urgent need, were 
estimated at nearly 1,000 talents of silver. Besides these resources, 
Athens had also the annual tiibute of her subjects. 

§ 13. Such were the forces of the two contending cities. Immediately 
after the attempted surprise of PlatiEa, the Lacedaemonians issued orders 
to their alUes to send two thirds of their disposable troops at once to the 
isthmus of Corinth, where they were to assemble by a day named, for the 
purpose of invading Attica. At the appointed time, the Spartan king 
Archidamus, the commander-in-chief of the expedition, reviewed the assem- 
bled host, and addressed a few words of advice and exhortation to the 
principal officers. Archidamus still cherished hopes that the Athenians 
would yield, when they saw the hostile army ready to enter Attica, and 
accordingly he sent forwards Melesippus to announce the impending 
invasion. But, at the instance of Pericles, the assembly had adopted a 
resolution to receive neither envoy nor herald; and Melesippus was 
escorted back without having been permitted to enter the city. As he 
parted from his escort at the Attic border, he could not help exclaiming, 
" This day will be the beginning of many calamities to the Greeks." 




Bnst of the historian Thucydides. 
34 



266 



HISTORY OF GBEECE. 



[Chap. XXVI 




The Parthenon, restored. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR TO 

THE CAPTURE AND DESTRUCTION OP PLATjEA. 



^ 1. The Peloponnesians invade Attica. § 2. Athenian naval Expeditions to Peloponnesus 
and Locris. § 3. The Athenians invade the Megarid. § 4. Second Invasion of Attica. 
Plague at Athens. § 5. Unpopularity of Pericles. He is accused of Malversation. ^ 6. 
His domestic Misfortunes. Death. Character. § 7. The Lacedsemonians ravage Attica. 
Their naval Operations. § 8. Surrender of Potidsea. § 9. The Lacedsemonians besiege 
Platsea. § 10. Part of the Garrison escape. § 11. Surrender of the Town. Trial and 
Execution of the Garrison. 



§ 1. Archidamus had entered upon the war with reluctance, and he 
now prosecuted it without vigor. He still clung to the idea that the 
Athenians would ultimately incline to peace, and he did all he could to 
promote so desirable a result. The enormous force which he was leading 
against them was, indeed, well calculated to test their firmness. It con- 
sisted, according to the lowest estimate, of 60,000 men, Avhilst some 
writers raise the number to 100,000 ; and the greater part of them were 
animated with a bitter hati'ed of Athens, and with a lively desire of 
revenge. Archidamus, having lingered as long as he could at the isthmus, 
marched slowly forwards after the return of Melesippus, and, taking a 
circuitous road, crossed the Attic border. Having wasted several days in 
an unsuccessful attack upon the frontier fortress of OEnoe, and not having 
received, as he expected, any message from the Athenians, he proceeded 
towards Eleusis and the Thriasian plain, where he arrived about the 
middle of June in b. c. 431. 



B.C. 431.1 INVASION OF ATTICA. 267 

Meanwhile, Pericles had instructed the inhabitants of Attica to secure 
themselves and their property within the walls of Athens. They obeyed 
his injunctions with reluctance, for the Attic population had from the 
earliest times been strongly attached to a rural life. But the circum'^tances 
admitted of no alternative. From all quarters they might be seen hurry- 
ing towards the capital with their families and goods ; whilst the cattle 
were for the most part conveyed to Euboea, or some other of the adjoining 
islands. Every vacant spot in the city or in Peirgeus, even those wliich 
belonged to the temples, were occupied by the encampments of the fugi- 
tives. The Acropolis, indeed, was preserved from this profane invasion ; 
but the ground immediately under it, called the Pelasgicon, which, in obe- 
dience to an ancient oracle, had hitherto been suffered to remain un- 
occupied, was now brought into use. The towers and recesses of the city 
walls were converted into dwellings, whilst huts, tents, and even casks 
were placed under the long walls to answer the same purpose. 

Archidamus, after ravaging the fertile Thriasian plain, in which he 
was but feebly opposed by a body of Athenian cavalry, proceeded to 
Acharnce, one of the largest and most flourishing of the Attic boroughs, 
situated only about seven miles from Athens. Here he encamped on a 
rising ground within sight of the metropolis, and began to lay waste the 
country around, expecting probably by that means to provoke the Athe- 
nians to battle. But in this he was disappointed. The Athenians, indeed, 
and especially th.e Acharnians now within the walls, who had contributed 
no fewer than three thousand hoplites to the army, were excited to the 
highest pitch of exasperation at beholding their houses, their ripening 
crops, their fruitful vineyards and orchards, destroyed before their very 
eyes. Little groups might be seen gathered together in the streets angrily 
discussing the question of an attack, quoting oracles and prophecies which 
assured them of success, and indignantly denouncing Pericles as a traitor 
and a coward for not leading them out to battle. Among the leaders of 
these attacks upon Pericles, Cleon, the future demagogue, now first rising 
into public notice, was conspicuous. It required all the firmness of 
Pericles to stem the torrent of public indignation. He had resolved not 
to venture an engagement in the open field, and steadily refused, in 
the present excited state of the public mind, to call an assembly of 
the people, in which, no doubt, some desperate resolution would have 
been adopted. In order, however, to divert in some degree the 
popular clamor, he permitted the Athenian and Thessalian cavalry to 
make sallies for the purpose of harassing the plundering parties of the 
enemy, and of protecting as much as possible the lands adjacent to the 
city. 

§ 2. But whilst Pericles thus abandoned the Attic territory to the ene- 
my, he was taking active measures to retaliate on the Peloponnesus itself 
the sufferings inflicted on the Athenians. For this purpose an Athenian 



268 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVI 

fleet of one hundred triremes, strengthened by fifty Corcyrsean ships, as 
well as by some from the other allies, sailed round Peloponnesus, and, 
disembarking troops at various points, caused considerable damage. This 
expedition penetrated as far northwards as the coast of Acarnania, where 
the Corinthian settlement of SoUium and the town of Astacus were taken, 
whilst the island of Cephallenia, which voluntarily submitted, was enrolled 
among the allies of Athens. 

Meanwhile a smaller fleet of thirty triremes had been despatched to the 
coast of Locris, where the towns of Thronium and Alope were taken and 
sacked, and a naval station established at the small uninhabited island of 
Atalanta, in order to coerce the Locrian privateers who infested Euboea. 
The naval operations of the year were concluded by the total expulsion of 
the -lEginetans from their island. The situation of -35gina rendered it of 
the highest importance as a maritime station ; and the Athenians were, 
moreover, incensed against the inhabitants for the part they had taken in 
excitmg the war. The whole of the population was transported to the 
coast of Peloponnesus, where the Spartans allowed them to occupy the 
town and district of Thyrea ; and their island was portioned out among a 
body of Athenian cleruchs. 

§ 3. Archidamus evacuated Attica towards the end of July, by the route 
of Oropus and Boeotia ; after which his army was disbanded. The Athe- 
nians availed themselves of his departure to wreak their vengeance on the 
Megarians. Towards the end of September, Pericles, at the head of 
thirteen thousand hoplites, and a large force of light-armed troops, marched 
into the Megarid, which he ravaged up to the very gates of the city. 
The Athenians repeated the same ravages once, and sometimes twice, 
every year whilst the war lasted. In the course of this year the Athenians 
also formed an alliance with Sitalces, king of the Odrys-ian Thracians, 
whose assistance promised to be of use to them in reducing Fotidsea 
and the revolted Chalcidian towns. 

Such were the results of the first campaign. From the method in which 
the war was conducted it had become pretty evident that it would prove 
of long duration ; and the Athenians now proceeded to provide for this 
contingency. It was agreed that a reserved fund of one thousand talents 
should be set apart, which was not to be touched in any other case than an 
attack upon Athens by sea. Any citizen who proposed to make a dif- 
ferent use of the fund incurred thereby the punishment of death. With 
the same view, it was resolved to reserve every year one hundred of their 
best triremes, fully manned and equipped. 

Towards the winter Pericles dehvered, from a lofty platform erected in 
the Cerameicus, the funeral oration of those who had fallen in the war. 
This speech, or at all events the substance of it, has been preserved by 
Thucydides, who may possibly have heard it pronounced. It is a valuable 
monument of eloquence and patriotism, and particularly interesting for the 



B. C. 430.] PLAGUE OF ATHENS. 269 

sketch, which it contains of Athenian manners, as well as of the Athenian 
constitution.* 

§ 4. Another year had elapsed, and in the spring of B. c. 430 the Pelo- 
ponnesians, under Archidamus, again invaded Attica. At the same time 
the Athenians were attacked by a more insidious and more formidable 
enemy. The plague broke out in the crowded city. This terrible disorder, 
which was supposed to have originated in ^Ethiopia, had already desolated 
Asia and many of the countries around the Mediten-anean. At Athens it 
first appeared in the Peirteus ; and the numbers of people now congi-egated 
in a narrow space caused it to spread with fearful rapidity. A great 
proportion of those who were seized perished in from seven to nine days. 
Even in those who recovered, it generally left behind some dreadful and 
incurable distemper. It frequently attacked the mental faculties, and left 
those who recovered from it so entirely deprived of memory, that they 
could neither recognize themselves nor others. The disorder being new, 
the physicians could find no remedy in the resources of their art, nor, as 
may be well supposed, did the charms and incantations to which the su- 
perstitious resorted prove more effectual. Despaii' now began to take 
possession of the Athenians. Some suspected that the Peloponnesians 
had poisoned the wells ; others attributed the pestilence to the anger of 
Apollo. A dreadful state of moral dissolution followed. The sick were 
seized with unconquerable despondency ; whilst a great part of the popu- 
lation who had hitherto escaped the disorder, expecting soon to be attacked 
in turn, abandoned themselves to all manner of excess, debauchery, and 
crime. The dread of contagion produced an all-pervading selfishness. 
Men abstained from tending and alleviating the sufferings even of their 

* A slight sketch of this masterly discourse will not be out of place here. It is not only a 
eulogy on the dead, but an elaborate and very able exhibition of the merits of the Athenian 
constitution, and the social life and genius of Atliens for the civilizing arts. Such a coun- 
try, he argues, is entitled to the love of her citizens, and must be defended at the hazard of life 
itself. " We enjoy," said he, '' a form of government, not emulating the laws of neighboring 
states, being ourselves rather a model to others than copying from them. It has been 
called by the name of Democracy, because the power resides not with the few, but with the 
majority." He then shows in what manner the Athenian institutions secured not only equal- 
ity of rights before the law, but a liberal and generous confidence in private life : how they 
cherished obedience to the magistrate, and a fine sense of honor, which submitted to the 
unwritten laws of noble conduct, both from the self-respect of gentlemen and from a sensi- 
bility to the shame attached to their violation by pubUc opinion. He appeals to their patriotic 
pride in the great achievements of their ancestors, and their own. " Having displayed our 
power in noble manifestations, and most assuredly not without witnesses, we shall be the ad- 
miration of the present age, and of those who are to come after us. We have forced every 
sea and every land to be accessible to our enterprise: — for such a country, the hei'oes of 
past ages laid down their fives, receiving a most distinguished sepulchre, not so much that 
in which their bodies lie buried as that in which their glory, on every occasion of word 
or deed, shaU be held in everlasting remembrance. For of illustrious men the whole earth 
is the sepulchre, signafized not alone by the inscription of the column in their native land, 
but, in lands not their own, by the unwritten memory which dwells with every man, of the 
spirit more than the deed." — Ed. 



270 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVI 

nearest relatives and friends during their sickness, as well as from admin- 
istering the sacred rites of sepulture to their remains after death. These 
pious offices of duty and friendship either remained unperformed, or were 
left to be discharged by strangers, who, having recovered from the disease, 
enjoyed an immunity from its further attacks. Often would a struggle 
arise for the possession of a funeral pile, and many a body was burnt on 
the pile destined for another. But for the most part the dead and the 
dying lay unheeded in the streets and temples, but more particularly around 
the wells, whither they had crowded to quench the burning and insatiable 
thirst excited by the disorder. The very dogs died that preyed upon the 
corpses, whilst by a peculiar instinct the vultures and other birds of prey 
abstained from feeding on them.* 

The numbers carried off by the pestilence can hardly be estimated at 
less than a fourth of the whole population. Such at least was about the 
ascertained proportion among the knights and hoplites forming the upper 
classes. The number of victims among the poorer part of the population 
was never ascertained, but there can be no doubt that the ratio among 
these was much higher. 

§ 5. Oppressed at once by war and pestilence, their lands desolated, 
their homes filled with mourning, it is not surprising that the Athenians 
were seized with rage and despair, or that they vented their anger on Peri- 
cles, whom they deemed the author of their misfortunes. But that statesman 
still adhered to his plans with unshaken firmness. Though the Lacedsemo- 
nians were in Attica, though the plague had already seized on Athens, he 
was vigorously pushing his plans of offensive operations. A foreign expe- 
dition might not only divert the popular mind, but would prove beneficial 
by relieving the crowded city of part of its population ; and accordingly a 
fleet was fitted out, of which Pericles himself took the command, and which 
committed devastations upon various parts of the Peloponnesian coast. 
But, upon returning from this expedition, Pericles found the public feeling 
more exasperated than before. Envoys had even been despatched to 
Sparta to sue for peace, but had been dismissed without a hearing; a 
disappointment which had rendered the populace still more furious. Peri- 
cles now found it necessary to call a public assembly in order to vindicate 
his conduct, and to encourage the desponding citizens to persevere. But 
though he succeeded in persuading them to prosecute the war with vigor, 
they still continued to nourish their feelings of hatred against the great 
statesman. His political enemies, of whom Cleon was the chief, took 
advantage of this state of the public mind to bring against him a charge of 
peculation. The main object of this accusation was to incapacitate him 
for the office of strategus, or general. He was brought before the dicastery 



* The description of the plague of Athens (Thucyd. B. II. cc. 47-54) is one of the most 
master V ielineations in historical literature. — Ed. 



B. C. 430.] DEATH AND CHARACTER OF PERICLES. 271 

on this charge, and sentenced to pay a considerable fine ; but eventually a 
strong reaction occurred in his favor. He was re-elected general, and 
apparently regained all the influence he had ever possessed. 

§ 6. But he was not destined long to enjoy this return of popularity. 
His life was now closing in, and its end was clouded by a long train of 
domestic misfortunes. The epidemic deprived him not only of many per- 
sonal and political friends, but also of Several near relations, amongst whom 
were his sister and his two legitimate sons, Xanthippus and Paralus. 
The death of the latter was a severe blow to him. During the funeral 
ceremonies, as he placed a garland on the body of this his favorite son, 
he was completely overpowered by his feelings, and wept aloud. His 
ancient house was now left without an heir. By Aspasia, however, he 
had an illegitimate son who bore his own name, and whom the Athenians 
now legitimized, and thus alleviated, as far as lay in their power, the mis- 
fortunes of their great leader : a proceeding all the more striking, since 
Pericles himself had proposed the law which deprived of citizenship all 
those who were not Athenians on the mother's side, as well as on the 
father's. 

After this period it was with difficulty that Pei'icles was persuaded by 
his friends to take any active part in public affairs ; nor did he survive 
more than a twelvemonth. An attack of the prevailing epidemic was 
succeeded by a low and lingering fever, which undermined both his strength 
of body and vigor of intellect. As he lay apparently unconscious on his 
death-bed, the friends who stood around it were engaged in recalling his 
exploits. The dying man interrupted them by remarking, " What you 
praise in me is partly the result of good fortune, and at all events common 
to me with many other commanders. What I chiefly pride myself upon, 
you have not noticed, — no Athenian ever wore mourning through me." 

The character of Pericles has been very variously estimated. Those 
who reflect upon the enormous influence which, for so long a period, and 
especially during the last fifteen years of his life, he exercised over an 
ingenious but fickle people like the Athenians, will hardly be disposed to 
question his intellectual superiority. This hold on the public affection 
was not, as in the case of Cimon, the result of any popularity of manner, 
for, as we have said, the demeanor of Pericles was characterized by a 
reserve bordering upon haughtiness. To what then are we to attribute it ? 
Doubtless, in the first place, to his extraordinary eloquence. Cicero re- 
gards him as the first example of an almost perfect orator, at once delight- 
ing the Athenians with his copiousness and grace, and overawing them by 
the force and cogency of his diction and arguments. He seems, indeed, on 
the testimony of two comic poets who will not be suspected of exaggeration 
in his favor, to have singularly combined the power of persuasion with 
that moi-e rajiid and abrupt style of oratory which tal^es an audience by 
Btorm and defies all resistance. According to Eupolis, persuasion itself 



272 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVI. 

sat upon his lips, and lie was the only orator who left a sting behind ; whilst 
Aristophanes characterizes his eloquence as producing the same eflFects 
upon the social elements as a storm of thunder and lightning exerts upon 
the natural atmosphere. His reserved manners may have contributed, 
and were perhaps designed, to preserve his authority from falling into that 
2ontempt which proverbially springs from familiarity ; wMlst the popularity 
which he enjoyed in spite of them may probably be traced to the equivocal 
benefits which he had conferred on the Athenians, by not only making the 
humblest citizen a partaker in all the judicial and legislative functions of 
the state, but even paying him for the performance of them. These inno- 
vations are condemned by the two greatest philosophers, though of opposite 
schools, that Greece ever saw, by Plato and Ai-istotle, and not only by 
them, but by the unanimous voice of antiquity. Pericles, indeed, by the 
unlimited authority which he possessed over the people, was able to coun- 
teract the evil effects of these changes, which, however, soon became 
apparent after his death, and made the city a prey to the artifices of 
demagogues and rhetors. But if Pericles as a politician may not be 
deserving of unqualified praise, Pericles as the accomplished man of genius 
and the hberal patron of literature and art is worthy of the highest admi- 
ration. By these qualities he has justly given name to the most brilliant 
intellectual epoch that the world has ever seen. But we have already 
touched on this point, and shall have occasion to refer to the subject here- 
after.* 

§ 7. Whilst the Athenians were suffering from the pestilence, the Lace- 
dgemonians were prosecuting their second invasion even more extensively 
than in the previous year. Instead of confining their ravages to the Thria- 
sian plain, and the country in the immediate neighborhood of Athens, they 
now extended them to the more southern portions of Attica, and even as 
far as the mines of Laurium. The Athenians still kept within their walls ; 
and the Lacedasmonians, after remaining forty days in their territory, 
again evacuated it as before. This year, however, the operations of the 
latter by sea formed a new feature in the war. Theii' fleet of a hundred 



* The character of Pericles is thus summed up by Thucydides : — '■ During the whole time 
that he stood at the head of the state in peace, he governed it with moderation, and watched 
over its safety, and under him it rose to the highest pitch of greatness. After the war 
broke out it was seen that he had a true conception of its power: and after his death, his 
foresight in relation to the war was still more clearly recognized. The cause of his influence 
was,, that, powerful in dignity of character and wisdom, and having conspicuously shown 
himself the most incorruptible of men, he curbed the people freely, and led them instead of 
being led by them. For he did not speak to then- present favor, endeavoring to gain power 
by unbecomuig means, but dared to brave their anger while holding fa^t to his own dignity 
and honor. The constitution was a democracy in word ; but in fact, it was the government 
of the most distinguished citizen. Those, however, who came after him, being more on an 
equality with one another, and each eager to stand foremost, made the gratification of the 
people their aim, and sacrificed to this the public interest." — Ed. 



B. C. 429.] SURRENDER OF POTID^A. 273 

triremes, under the command of Cnemus, g-ttacked and devastated tlie isl- 
and of Zacjnthus, but did not succeed in effecting a permanent conquest. 
Thej were too inferior in naval strength to cope with the Athenians on 
the open sea ; but the Peloponnesian privateers, especially those from the 
Megarian port of Nisaea, inflicted considerable loss on the Athenian fish-^ 
eries and commerce. Some of these privateers even ventured as far as 
the coasts of Asia Minor, and molested the Athenian trade, for the protec- 
tion of which the Athenians were obliged to despatch a squadron of six 
triremes, under Melesander. A revolting feature in this predatory warfare 
was the cruelty with which the Lacedaemonians treated their prisoners, 
who were mercilessly slain, and their bodies cast into clefts and ravines. 
This produced retaliation on the part of the Athenians. Some Pelopon- 
nesian envoys, on their way to the court of Persia to solicit aid against 
Athens, were joined by the Corinthian general Aristeus, who persuaded 
them to visit the court of the Thracian king, Sitalces, in order if possible to 
detach him from the Athenian alliance. But this was a fatal miscalcula- 
tion. Not only was Sitalces firmly attached to the Athenians, but his son 
Sadocus had been admitted as a citizen of Athens ; and the Athenian resi- 
dents at the court of Sitalces induced him, in testimony of zeal and gratitude 
for his newly conferred rights, to procure the arrest of the Peloponnesian 
envoys. The whole party were accordingly seized and conducted to Ath- 
ens, where they were put to death without even the form of a trial, and 
their bodies cast out among the rocks, by way of reprisal for the murders 
committed by the Lacedaemonians. 

§ 8. By this act the Athenians got rid of Aristeus, who had proved 
himself an active and able commander, and who was the chief instigator 
of the revolt of Potidaea, as well as the principal cause of its successful 
resistance. In the following winter that town capitulated, after a blockade 
of two years, during which it suffered such extremity of famine, that even 
the bodies of the dead were converted into food. Although the garrison 
was reduced to such distress, and though the siege had cost Athens two 
thousand talents, the Athenian generals, Xenophon, the son of Euripides, 
and his two colleagues, granted the Potidaeans favorable terms. For this 
they were reprimanded by the Athenians, who had expected to defray the 
expenses of the siege by selling the prisoners as slaves, and perhaps also to 
gratify their vengeance by putting the intrepid garrison to death. Potidtea 
and its territory was now occupied by a body of a thousand colonists 
from Athens. 

§ 9. The third year of the war (b. c. 429) was now opening, and nothing 
decisive had been performed on either side. After two invasions, but lit- 
tle-mischief, probably, was capable of being inflicted on the Attic territory, 
or at all events not sufficient to induce the Peloponnesians to incur the 
risk of infection from the plague. Archidamus, therefore, now directed 
his whole force against the ill-fated town of Platsea. As he approaclied 
35 



274 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVI 

their city, the Plataeans despatched a herald to Archidamus to remonstrate 
against this invasion, and to remind him of the solemn oath which Pausa- 
nias had sworn, when, after the defeat of the Persians, he offered sacrifice 
to Zeus Eleutherios in the great square of Plataea, and there, in the pres- 
ence of the assembled allies, bound himself and them to respect and guar- 
antee their independence Archidamus replied, that by their oaths they 
were bound to assist him in the hberation of the rest of Greece ; but, if 
they would not agree to do this, their independence should be respected if 
they only consented to remain neutral. After this summons had been 
twice repeated, the Plataeans returned for answer, that they could do noth- 
ing without the consent of the Athenians, in whose custody their wives 
and famihes now were ; adding, that a profession of neutrality might again 
induce the Thebans to surprise their city. Hereupon Archidamus proposed 
to them to hand over their town and territory to the Lacedsemonians, to- 
gether with a schedule of all the property which they contained, engaging 
to hold them in trust and to cultivate the land till the war was terminated, 
when everything should be safely restored. In the mean time, the Plataeans 
might retire whithersoever they chose, and receive an allowance sufficient 
for their support. 

The ofier seemed fair and tempting, and the majority of the Plataeans 
were for accepting it, but it was resolved first of all to obtain the sanction 
of the Athenians : who, however, exhorted them to hold out, and promised 
to assist them to the last. The Plataeans, afraid to send a herald to the 
Spartan camp, now proclaimed from the walls their refusal of the proffered 
terms ; when Archidamus invoked the gods and heroes of the soil (o wit- 
ness, that it was not until the Plateaus had renounced the oaths which 
bound them, that he had invaded their territory. The Peloponnesians, 
indeed, seem to have been really unwilling to undertake the siege. They 
were driven into it by the ancient grudge of the Thebans against Plattea. 

The siege that ensued is one of the most memorable in the annals of 
Grecian warfare. Plataea was but a small city, and its garrison consisted 
of only 400 citizens and 80 Athenians, together with 110 women to 
manage their household affairs. Yet this small force set at defiance the 
whole army of the Peloponnesians. The first operation of Archidamus 
was to surround the town with a strong palisade formed of the fruit-trees 
which had been cut down, and thus to deprive the Plataeans of all egress. 
He then began to erect a mound of timber, earth, and stones against the 
wall, forming an inclined plane up which his troops might march, and thus 
take the place by escalade. The whole army labored at this mound 
seventy days and nights ; but whilst it was gradually attaining the requisite 
'height, the Plataeans on their side were engaged in raising their walls with 
a superstructure of wood and brickwork, protected in front with hides. 
They also formed a subterranean passage under their walls, and under- 
mined the mound, which thus fell in and required constant additions. And 



B C. 427.J SIEGE OF PLAT^A. 275 

as- even these precautions seemed in danger of being ultimately defeated, 
they built a new interior wall, in the shape of a crescent, whose two horns 
joined the old one at points beyond the extent of the mound ; so that if 
the besiegers succeeded in carrying the first rampart, they would be in no 
better position than before. So energetic was the defence, that the Lace 
d^emonians, after spending three months in these fruitless attempts, resolved 
to turn the siege into a blockade, and reduce the place by famine. 

§ 10. They now proceeded to surround the city with a double wall of 
circumvallation, the interior space between the two of sixteen feet in breadth 
being roofed in, and the whole structure protected by a ditch on each side, 
one towards the town and the other towards the country. The interior 
was occupied by the troops left on guard, half of which consisted of Boeo- 
tians and the other half of Peloponnesians. In this manner the Platseans 
endured a blockade of two years, during which the Athenians attempted 
nothing for their relief. In the second year, however, about half the gar 
rison effected their escape in the following bold and successful manner 
Provisions were beginning to run short, and the Platasan commander ex- 
horted the garrison to scale the wall by which they were blockaded. Only 
212 men, however, were found bold enough to attempt this hazardous feat. 
Choosing a wet and stormy December night, they issued from their gates 
lightly armed and carrying with them ladders accurately adapted to the 
height of the wall. These were fixed against it in the space between two 
towers occupied by the guard, and the first company, having mounted, slew, 
without creating alarm, the sentinels on duty. Already a great part of 
the Plataeans had gained the summit, when the noise of a tile loosened by 
one of the party, and falling down, betrayed what was passing. The whole 
guard immediately turned out, but in the darkness and confusion knew not 
whither to direct their blows, whilst the lighted torches which they carried 
rendered them a conspicuous aim for the arrows and javelins of those Pla- 
taeans who had gained the other side of the walls. In this manner the 
little band succeeded in effecting their escape, with the exception of one 
man who was captured, and of a few who lost their courage and returned 
to Plataea. 

§ 11. But though the provisions of the garrison were husbanded by 
this diminution in their number, all the means of subsistence were at 
length exhausted, and starvation began to stare them in the face. The 
Lacedaemonian commander had long been in a condition to take the town 
by storm, but he had been directed by express orders from home to reduce 
it to a voluntary capitulation, in order that, at the conclusion of a peace, 
Sparta might not be forced to give it up, as she would be in case of a for- 
cible capture. Knowing the distressed state of the garrison, the Lacedae- 
monians sent in a herald with a summons to surrender and submit them- 
selves to their disposal, at the same time promising that only the guilty 
should be punished. The besieged had no alternative, and submitted. This 
took place in b. c. 427, after the blockade had lasted two years. 



276 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVI. 

The whole garrison, consisting of 200 Platseans and 25 Athenians, were 
now arraigned before five judges sent from Sparta. Their indictment was 
framed in a way which precluded the possibility of escape. They were 
simply asked, " Whether during the present war they had rendered any 
assistance to the Lacediemonians or their allies ? " So preposterous a 
question at once revealed to the prisoners that they could expect neither 
justice nor mercy. Nevertheless, they asked and obtained permission to 
plead their cause. Their orators, by recalling the services which Platfea 
had rendered to Greece in general in the Persian war, and to Sparta in 
particular, by aiding to suppress the revolt of the Helots, seemed to have 
produced such an impression on their judges that the Thebans present 
found it necessary to reply. Their speech does not appear to have con- 
tained any very cogent arguments, but it was successful. The Plateeans 
were mercilessly sacrificed for reasons of state policy. Each man, includ- 
ing the twenty-five Athenians, was called up separately before the judgment- 
seat, and the same question having been put to him, and of course answered 
in the negative, he was immediately led away to execution. The town of 
Platsea, together with its territory, was transferred to the Thebans, who, a 
few months afterwards, levelled all the private houses to the ground, and 
with the materials erected a sort of vast barrack around the Herseum, or 
temple of Hera, both for the accommodation of visitors, and to serve as an 
abode for those to whom they let out the land. Thus was Platsea blotted 
out from the map of Greece. 



B. C. 429.] 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. 



277 




Statue of Theseus, from the Pediment of the Parthenon, in the British Museum. 



CHAPTER XXVn. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. FROM THE SIEGE OF PLATJEA TO 

THE SEDITION AT CORCYRA. 



1 1. General Character of the War. § 2. Military and Naval Operations of the Third Year. 
Attempt of Peloponnesians to surprise Peirseus. § 3. Fourth Year Revolt of Mytilend 
4 4. Fifth Year. Surrender of Mytilen^. § 5. Debates of the Athenian Assembly re- 
specting the Mytilenseaus. Cleon and the Athenian Demagogues. § 6. Bloody Decree 
against the Mytilenaeans. § 7. Second Debate. Reversal of the Decree. Lesbos colo- 
jQized by Athenians. § 8. Civil Dissensions at Corcyra. § 9. Picture of the Times by 
Thucydides. 

§ 1. In recording the fall of Plataea, we have anticipated the order of 
chronology. The investment of that town formed, as we have related, the 
first incident in the third year of the Peloponnesian war. The subsequent 
operations of that war down to the eleventh year of it, or the year b. c. 
421, — when a short and hollow peace, or rather truce, called the peace of 
Nicias, was patched up between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, — were 
not of a decisive character. There was, indeed, much mutual injury in- 
flicted, but none of those great events which bring a war to a close by dis- 
abling either one or both parties from continuing it. The towns captured 
were, moreover, restored at the peace ; by which, consequently, Athens and 
Sparta, were placed mvich in the same state as when the war broke out. It 
would be tedious to detail at length all the little engagements which occurred, 



278 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIl 

and which the reader could with difficulty remember ; and we shall there- 
fore content ourselves with a sketch of the more important events, espe- 
cially those which display the general character of the period, the actions 
of the more remarkable men who flourished in it, and the motives, views, 
and dispositions of the contending parties. 

§ 2. Except the siege of Plateea, the operations by land in the third 
year of the war were unimportant. The Athenians failed in an attempt to 
reduce the town of Spartolus in Chalcidice ; nor were the efforts of their 
new ally, Sitalces, more successful in that quarter. According to the ancient 
myth of Tereus, Sitalces considered himself a kinsman of the Athenians ; 
but some well-applied bribes were probably a more effacious inducement 
for him to undertake the reduction of Chalcidice, and the dethronement of 
Perdiccas, king of Macedonia. The sway of Sitalces over the barbarous 
tribes of Thrace was very extensive. He was able to collect an army es- 
timated at 150,000 men, one third of which was cavalry. With this mul- 
titudinous, but Avild and disorderly host, he penetrated far into the dominions 
of Perdiccas, and compelled the Macedonians, who did not venture to meet 
him in the open field, to shut themselves up- in their fortresses. He also 
detached a force to reduce the Chalcidians and Botti^ans. But his expe- 
dition was undertaken at too late a period of the year, seemingly about 
the end of November, or beginning of December ; and as the winter proved 
very severe, and the Athenians neglected to send any armament to his 
assistance, Sitalces was compelled to relinquish his conquests after a cam- 
paign, or rather foray, of thirty days. 

In the same year the naval superiority of the Athenians was strikingly 
exhibited by the victories of Phormio in the Corinthian Gulf. The Lace- 
daemonians had planned an expedition against Acarnania, and had sent a 
fleet of forty-seven sail, under the command of Cnemus, to carry this 
project into effect. Phormio was stationed at Naupactus with only twenty 
Athenian ships ; but notwithstanding his numerical inferiority, he gained a 
brilliant victory over the Peloponnesian fleet. But this was not all. The 
Spartans lost no time in collecting another fleet, amounting to seventy- 
seven sail..' . Meantime Phormio had received no reinforcements ; but such 
was his confidence in the skill of his seamen, that he ventured to meet even 
these overpowering numbers, and though this victory was not so decisive 
as the previous one, the Peloponnesians relinquished all further operations 
and sailed back to Corinth. The Peloponnesian commanders tried to 
compensate for these losses by surprising the harbor of Peirseus, which 
was unprotected by a guard, or even by a chain. Having marched over- 
land from Corinth to the Megarian port of Nisa3a, they embarked their 
men in forty old triremes, which, however, were in a sufficient state of re- 
pair for so short an expedition. But either their courage failed them at 
the very moment of executing their project, or else, as they gave out, the 
wind proved adverse. Instead of attempting Peirseus, they proceeded to 



B. C. 428.J REVOLT OF MYTILENE. 279 

the opposite island of Salamis. Here thej landed in the night, captured 
three guard-ships, ravaged the island, and succeeded in retreating with 
their booty before the alarmed and enraged Athenians could come up with 
them. The Athenians, howevez-, took warning from this insult, aiid were 
more careful in future in guardmg their harbors. 

§ 3. The fourth year of the war (b. c. 428) was marked by the usual 
invasion of Attica on the part of the Peloponnesians. It was accompanied 
hj the alarming news of the revolt of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, and 
of the greater part of that island. This revolt had been long meditated ; 
but though the Athenians had before received some intimation of it, their 
reduced condition from the war and from the plague had prevented them 
from taking any measures to arrest it. An embassy which they now sent 
to the Mytilena3ans, to persuade them to remain in their duty, having failed, 
the Athenian commander, Cleippides, who was on the point of sailing to 
the Peloponnesus with a fleet of forty triremes, was ordered to proceed 
directly to Mytilene. 

It Avas one of the disadvantages of the Athenian constitution, so far at 
least as the foreign relations of Athens were concerned, that the executive 
power lay with the people, and that thus, all their debates and resolutions 
heing pubhc, it was impossible to keep them concealed from those who 
were the subjects of them. The Mytilen^eans, having received information 
of the intended expedition through a spy, postponed the festival of Apollo, 
during which the Athenians had expected to surprise thenij and made 
every preparation to I'eceive the hostile fleet. But being still inferior in 
strength, they pretended to enter into negotiations with Cleippides, who 
fell into the snare ; and in the mean time secretly despatched envoys to 
Sparta to implore immediate assistance. The embassy which the Myti- 
lenaeans had sent to Athens with the ostensible purpose of negotiating, 
having, as might be expected, failed, Cleippides, who had been reinforced 
by several vessels from the allied islands, as well as by one thousand 
Athenian hoplites under Paches, commenced hostilities, and by the begin- 
ning of October succeeded in blockading Mytilene both by sea and land. 

The Mytilensean envoys despatched to Sparta arrived during the cele- 
bration of the Olympic festival, where most of the members of the Pelo- 
ponnesian alliance were present. After tlie festival was concluded they 
set forth the grounds of their complaints against Athens, which wei-e chiefly 
two; namely, their fear of being reduced to the condition of ihe other 
subject aUies of Athens, and their repugnance to assist that state in her 
ambitious policy, wliich was generally offensive to the states of Greece. 
Their application was of course favorably received by their Peloponnesian 
auditors. They were promised assistance, and were formally received into 
the Peloponnesian alliance. Not only was a second invasion of Attica 
ordered, but it was also proposed to transport on trucks, across the isthmus, 
from the harbor of Lechasum into the Saronic Gulf, tlie ships which had 
fought against Phormio, and to employ them against Athens. 



2'8Q HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIL 

A very general impression seems at tMs time to liave prevailed among 
the allies, that the plague and war combined had nearly exhausted the 
resources of the Athenians. Nor was this opinion altogether without 
foundation. The fund which they possessed at the beginning of the war 
was now exhausted, with the exception of the reserve of one thousand 
.talents put by to meet a naval invasion. The numbers of their soldiers, 
and especially of their able seamen, had also no doubt been considerably 
reduced by the war and pestilence. But there were still ample means, 
and above all an indomitable spirit, among the Athenians, to supply the 
deficiencies thus created. A higher class both of citizens and metics * 
than those who had hitherto engaged in the naval service was ordered on 
board the fleet, from which duty only the two highest classes, namely, the 
Pentacosiomedimni, and the Hippeis, or Knights, were now exempted. 
And in order to replenish the pubhc treasury the Athenians were for the 
first time subjected to a direct contribution or mcome tax, by which a sum 
of two hundred talents was raised. 

By these efforts the Athenians manned a fleet of one hundred triremes, 
which suddenly and unexpectedly appeared' off the isthmus, and made 
descents at various points. At the same time the Lacedaemonians assem- 
bled there were surprised by the news that another Athenian fleet of 
thiily triremes, which had been previously despatched under Asopius, the 
son of Phormio, was committing devastations on the coast of Laeonia. 
These energetic proceedings arrested the projected enterprise of the 
Lacedemonians, especially as their allies were engaged in gathering the 
harvest, and had therefore assembled only in small numbers. Accord- 
ingly they returned home, and contented themselves with preparing a fleet 
of forty triremes for the relief of Mytilene. 

§ 4. This armament, however, could not be got ready till the spring of 
the following year (b. c. 427). Meanwhile Saleethus, a Lacedgemoniaa 
envoy, proceeded to Lesbos, and, having contrived to enter Mytilene, 
encouraged the citizens to hold out till the arrival of the promised suc- 
cors. In the course of April the Peloponnesian fleet, consisting of forty- 
two triremes under Alcidas, actually sailed, and at the same time, in order 
to create a diversion, the allied army again invaded Attica. 

But week after week passed away, and Alcidas did not appear before 
Mytilene. The provisions of the town were exhausted, the populace was 
growing unpatient, and even Salisthus himself began to despair of the 
arrival of the fleet. It was therefore resolved, as a last desperate ex- 
pedient, to make a sally, and endeavor to raise the blockade. With this 
view even the men of the lower classes were armed with the fuU armor of 
the hoplites. But this step produced a very different result from what 



* The \i€ToiKoi, metics, were resident aliens, of whom a large number were found st 
\thens, on account of tlie liberal treatment extended to strangers in that city. — Ed 



B. C. 427.] CLEON. 281 

SalEethus had expected or intended. The great mass of the Mytilenseans 
were not adverse to the Athenian dominion ; but tliey regarded their own 
oligarchical government with suspicion, accused it of starving the citizens 
whilst it possessed stores of concealed provisions for the use of the higher 
classes ; and being now strengthened by the arms which had been dis- 
tributed to them, threatened that, unless their demands were complied 
with, they would surrender the city to the Athenians. In this desperate 
emergency the MytUentean government perceived that their only chance 
of safety lay in anticipating the people in this step. They accordingly 
opened a negotiation with Paches, and a capitulation was agreed upon by 
which the city was to be surrendered, and the fate of its inhabitants to be 
decided by the Athenian Assembly. It was stipulated, however, that they 
were to be permitted to send envoys to Athens to plead their cause ; and 
Paches engaged that meanwhile nobody should be imprisoned or sold into 
slavery. When Paches entered the city, those MytilensBans who had 
been the chief instigators of the revolt took refuge at the altars ; but he 
induced them by his assurances to quit their places of refuge, and placed 
them in Tenedos. 

Scarcely had this capitulation been concluded, when, to the surprise of 
the Mytilenseans, the Peloponnesian fleet appeared off the coast of .Ionia. 
Alcidas, overawed by the maritime reputation of Athens, had neglected 
to discharge his duty with the energy required by the crisis ; and, finding 
that he had arrived too late to save Mytilene, he sailed back to Pelopon- 
nesus, without attempting anything further. 

§ 5. Paches, being now undisputed master of Lesbos, despatched to 
Athens those Mytilenteans who had been deposited at Tenedos, together 
with others implicated in the late revolt, and hkewise Salsethus, the Lace-, 
daemonian envoy, who had been detected in a place of concealment in the 
city. The Athenians assembled to decide on the fate of these prisoners, 
amounting in number to more than a thousand. Satethus was at once 
put to death. The disposal of the other prisoners caused some debate. 
It was on this occasion that the demagogue Cleon, whom we have already 
noticed as an opponent of Pericles, first comes prominently forwards in 
Athenian affixirs. The effects of the extensive commerce of Athens, and 
more particularly of the political changes introduced by Pericles, were 
now beginnmg to show themselves. Down to the .time of that statesman, 
the democracy of Athens had been governed by aristocratic leaders alone. 
The personal qualities of Pericles, in spite of the growing feeling of 
democracy, secured his ascendency in the assembly ; but even during his 
lifetime men of a much lower rank than those who had formerly pretended 
to govern the people were beginning to step forward, and to claim a share 
of power. Such were Eucx'ates, the rope-maker, Lysicles, the sheep- 
dealer, and Hyperbolus, the lamp-maker. The humblest mechanic, if an 
Athenian citizen, was at liberty to address the assembly; there was 
36 



282 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIL 

nothing to prevent him but disfranchisement for debt or crime. If he suc- 
ceeded, his fortune was made ; for the influence thus acquired might be 
converted, in various, but not over-reputable ways, into a source of profit. 
Success, however, demanded some peculiar qualifications. An Athenian 
audience was somewhat fastidious ; but more especially the vastness of 
their assemblies, and the noise and clamor with which they frequently 
abounded, demanded not only a considerable share of nerve, but also 
physical powers, especially a loud voice, which are not always found com- 
bined with the higher mental requisites of an orator. Hence those who 
possessed even a moderate share of ability, if endowed with audacity and 
a stentorian voice, stood a much better chance in the assembly than men 
of far higher talent, but deficient in those indispensable qualifications. If 
we may trust the picture drawn by Aristophanes, Cleon, the leather- 
seller, was a perfect model of that new class of low-born orators just 
alluded to ; a noisy brawler, loud in his criminations, insolent in his ges- 
tures, corrupt and venal in his principles ; extorting money by threats of 
accusations, a persecutor of i^ank and merit, a base flatterer and sycophant 
of the populace. In this portrait much allowance must no doubt be made, 
not only for comic license and exaggeration, but also for party feeling and 
personal pique. Aristophanes was on the aristocratic side in politics, and 
was moreover engaged in a private quarrel with Cleon, caused by the 
latter having complained to the Senate of his comedy of the Babylonians. 
Thucydides, indeed, in his account of Cleon, goes very far to confirm the 
description of Aristophanes. But here too we must be somewhat on our 
guard respecting the testimony of an historian otherwise remarkable for his 
impartiality ; for it was to Cleon that Thucydides owed his banishment. 
StiU, after making all due allowance for the operation of these causes, we 
cannot refrain from thinking that the character of Cleon conveyed to us 
by these two writers is, in its main features, correct. Even a caricature 
must have some grounds of truth for its basis ; nor would Aristophanes, 
out of mere regard for his poetical reputation, have ventured to produce 
before an Athenian audience a character of their well-known demagogue 
&o unlike the truth as not to be easily recognized. The actions of Cleon, 
which are undisputed, show him cruel and cowardly ; characteristics which 
may lead us to infer any degree of baseness in a man. Along with his 
impudence and other bad qualities he must, however, no doubt have pos- 
sessed a certain share of ability, since, at the period of which we are now 
speaking, he possessed more influence than any other orator in the Athe- 
nian Assembly. It was he who took the lead in the debate respecting the 
disposal of the Mytilenaeans, and made the savage and horrible proposal 
to put to death not only the prisoners who had been sent to Athens, but 
the whole male population of Mytilene of military age, — including there- 
fore those who had not participated in, or were even opposed to, the 
revolt, — and to sell the women and children into slavery. This motion 



B. C. 427 DECREE AGAINST THE MYTILENEANS. 283 

he succeeded in carrying, notwitlistanding the opposition of Diodotus and 
others ; and in order seemingly that no room might be left for cdoler 
reflection, a trireme was immediately despatched to Mytilene, conveying 
orders to Paches to put the bloody decree into execution. 

§ 6. The barbarous laws of ancient warfare justified atrocities which in 
modern times would be regarded with horror and detestation ; and we 
have already described the Lacedemonians as exercising those laws with 
the most revolting severity in the case of the garrison of Plataaa ; — an 
event, however, which took place a little after the time of which we are 
now speaking. The conduct of the Lacedemonians on that occasion 
admits of no excuse. But this decree of the Athenians was infinitely 
worse, not only on account of the much greater number of persons whom 
it devoted to death, but also and principally because it made no discrimi- 
nation between the innocent and the guilty. One night's reflection con- 
vinced the better part of the Athenians of the enormity which they had 
sanctioned. Ordinary experience shows that bodies of men will perpetrate 
acts which the individuals composing them would shrink from with hor- 
ror: and this tendency was one of the worst evils springing from the 
multitudinous and purely democratical composition of the Athenian assem- 
blies. On the morrow so genei'al a feeling prevailed of the horrible 
injustice that had been committed, that the Strategi acceded to the prayer 
of the Mytilenaian envoys, and called a fresh assembly ; though by so 
doing they committed an illegal act and exposed themselves to impeach- 
ment. 

§ 7. Cleon, however, had not changed his opinion. Li the second 
assembly he repeated his arguments against the Mytilenseans, and 
clamored for what he called "justice" against them. He denounced the 
folly and mischief of reversing on one day what had been done on the 
preceding ; and, though himself the very type and model of a demagogue, 
had the impudence to characterize his opponents as guilty and ambitious 
orators, who sacrified the good of the republic either to their interests or 
their vanity ! His opponent, Diodotus, very wisely abstained from appeal- 
ing to the humanity of an assembly which had passed the decree of the 
previous day. He confined himself entirely to the policy of the question, 
and concluded by recommending that the Mytilenosans already in custody 
should be put upon their trial, but that the remainder of the population 
should be spared. This amendment having been carried by a small ma- 
jority, a second trireme was immediately despatched to Mytilene, with 
orders to Paches to arrest the execution. The utmost diligence was need- 
ful. The former trireme had a start of four-and-twenty hours, and nothing 
but exertions almost superhuman would enable the second to reach Myti- 
lene early enough to avert the tragical catastrophe. The oarsmen were 
allowed by turns only short intervals of rest, and took their food, consist- 
ing of barley-meal steeped in wine and oil, as they sat at the oar. Happily 



284 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIl 

the weather proved favorable; and the crew, who had been promised 
large rewards in case they arrived in time, exerted themselves to deliver 
the reprieve, whilst the crew of the preceding vessel had conveyed the 
order for execution with slowness and reluctance. Yet even so the 
countermand, came only just in time. The mandate was already in the 
hands of Paches, who was taking measures for its execution. With 
regard to the prisoners at Athens, the motion of Cleon to put them to 
death was carried, and they were slain to the number of more than a 
thousand. The fortifications of Mytilene were razed, and her fleet 
dehvered up to the Athenians. The whole island, Avith the exception of 
Methymna, which had remained faithful, was divided into three thousand 
lots, three hundred of which were set apart for the gods, and the remain- 
der assigned to Athenian cleruchs. 

The fate of Paches, the Athenian commander at Mytilene, must not be 
passed over in silence. On his return to Athens, he was arraigned before 
the dicastery for the dishonor of two Mytilentean women, whose husbands 
he had slain ; and such was the feeHng of indignation excited by this case 
among the susceptible Athenians, that Paches, without waiting for his 
sentence, killed himself with his sword in open court. 

§ 8. The fate of the Platteans and Mytilenseans affords a fearful illus- 
tration of the manners of the age ; but these horrors soon found a parallel 
in Corcyra. It has been' already related, that, after the sea-fight off that 
island, the Corinthians carried home many of the principal Corcyrajans as 
prisoners. These men were treated with the greatest indulgence ; and 
while Mytilene was under blockade, were sent back to Corcyra, nominally 
under the lieavy ransom of eight hundred talents, but in reality with the 
view of withdrawing the island from the Athenian alliance. Being joined 
by the rest of the oligarchical citizens on their return, they assassinated 
the leaders of the democratical party in the senate-house, and then cax-ried 
a resolution in the assembly of the people, that the Corcyrseans should for 
the future observe a strict neutrality between the contending parties. But 
they did not stop here. They determined on putting down the democrati- 
cal party by force, and with this view seized the pi'incipal harbor, together 
with the arsenal and market-place. The people, however, got possession 
of the higher parts of the town, together witli the Acropolis ; and having 
been reinforced by slaves from the interior, whom they promised to eman- 
cipate, they renewed the combat on the following day. The oligarchs, 
driven to extremity, adopted the desperate expedient of setting fire to the 
town, and thus destroyed a great deal of property near the docks ; but an 
adverse wind fortunately prevented it from extending to the remainder of 
the city. 

The Athenians had been informed of the state of things at Corcyra, and 
at this juncture an Athenian squadron of twelve triremes, under the com-^ 
mand of Nicostratus, arrived from Naupactus. Mcostratus behaved with 



B. C. 427.] REVOLUTIONS AT CORCTRA. 285 

great moderation, and did his best to restore peace between the parties. 
He had apparently succeeded in this object, when the position of affairs 
was suddenly changed by the arrival of a Peloponnesian fleet of fifty-three 
galleys under the command of Alcidas. Nicostratus succeeded, by skilful 
mano3uvres, in keeping the enemy at bay with his small fleet, but was 
obliged at last to retreat, which he did in good order, and without losing 
any of his vessels. Alcidas, however, with his usual slowness, neglected 
to make use of the opportunity, and attack the capital at once, though 
Brasidas strongly advised him to do so. He lost a day in ravaging the 
country, and in the following night fire-signals upon the island of Leucas 
telegraphed the approach of an Athenian fleet of sixty triremes under 
Eurymedon. Alcidas now only thought of making his escape, which he 
effected before daybreak, leaving the Corcyrfean oligarchs to their fate. 

Another vicissitude thus rendered the popular party in Corcyra again 
triumphant. The vengeance which they took on their opponents was fear- 
ful. The most sacred sanctuaries afforded no protection ; the nearest ties 
of blood and kindred were sacrificed to civil hatred. In one case a father 
slew even his own son. These scenes of horror lasted for seven days, dur- 
ing which death in every conceivable form was busily at work. Yet the 
Athenian admiral did not once interpose to put a stop to these atrocities. 
About five hundred of the oligarchical party, however, effected their 
escape, and fortified themselves on Mount Istone, not far from the capital. 

§ 9. Thucydides, in drawing this bloody picture of domestic dissensions, 
traces the causes of it to the war. In peace and prosperity, when men are 
not overmastered by an irresistible necessity, the feelings both of states 
and individuals are mild and humane. But a war under the auspices of 
Sparta and Athens — one the representative of the aristocratic, the other 
of the democratic principle — became a war of opinion, and embittered 
the feelings of political parties, by offering to each the means and oppor- 
tunity of enforcing its views through an alliance with one or the other of 
the two leading cities. The example of Corcyra was soon followed in 
other Hellenic states. Not only were the dispositions of men altered by 
these causes, but even the very names of things were changed. Daring 
rashness was honored with the name of bravery, whilst considerate delay 
was denounced as the mere pretext of timidity. Wisdom was regarded as 
equivalent to cowardice, and the weighing of everything as a pretence for 
attempting nothing. The simplicity which generally characterizes virtue 
was ridiculed as dulness and stupidity; whilst he was regarded as the 
cleverest who excelled in cunning and treachery, and especially if he 
employed his arts to the destruction of his nearest, and therefore unsus- 
pecting, friends and relatives.* 



* It will be woi-tli while to give the substance of this remarkable description, in a literal 
translation of the words of Thucydides. The profound wisdom of the passage is of univer 



286 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVm 

Bal application ; but nowhere so directly applicable as to a confederated republic, like the 
United States of America. 

" Afterwards the whole Hellenic world was thrown into commotion. The leaders of the 
popular party called in the Athenians, the oligarchical party, the Lacedsemonians, feuds ex- 
isting everywhere. In peace 1 hey would have had no pretext or preparation for summoning 
them; but being at war, and each party forming an alliance for the damage of their 
antagonists, and their own security, occasions of invoking foreign aid were easily furnished 
to those who aimed to effect political changes. And many heavy calamities befell the 
states through these feuds, which happen and alwaj's will happen so long as the nature of 
man remains the same: greater, or milder, and varying in their aspects, as variations 
of condition in each case arise. For in peace and prosperity both communities and 
individuals are better disposed, because they are not driven to intolerable necessities. 
But war, withdrawing the supplies of daily life, is a hard teacher, and subdues the passions 
of the many to the quality of present circumstances. Discord then reigned throughout 

the states And they changed the customary meaning of words applied to things, 

according to the caprices of the moment; for reckless audacity was considered manly 
fidelity to party; prudent delay, fair-seeming cowardice; moderation, the screen for feeble- 
ness. Headlong frensy was set down on the side of manhood. The unrelenting was 
trusted ; whoever argued against hira was suspected. He who plotted, if successful, was 
thought sagacious ; who counterplotted, still abler. He who forecasted the means, whereby 
he should not need these resorts, was charged with ruining the party and fearing their 
opponents. In a word, he was applauded who got the start of another when intending to do 
an injury, and who induced one to do a wrong, that had no thought of doing it himself. 
And what was worse, kin became more alien than party, because party was prompter foi 
unscrupulous daring. For such combinations aim not for the benefit of the established 
institutions, but in their grasping spirit run counter to the lawful authorities. Their pledges 
to one another were sanctioned, not by divine law, but by their having together violated 
law. The cause of this state of things was the lust of power, for purposes of rapacity and 
ambition, and the hot temper of those who were engaged in the conflict. Thus neither 
party held to sacred honor; but those were more highly spoken of Avho, under cover of 
plausible pretences, succeeded in effecting some purpose of hatred. The citizens who stood 
between the extremes, and belonged to neither, both parties endeavored to destroy. So 
every species of wickedness became established by these feuds over the Hellenic world. 
Simplicity of character, wherein nobleness of nature most largely shares, being scoffed at, 
disappeared; and mutual opposition of feeling, with universal distrust, prevailed. For there 
was neither binding word nor fearful oath to compose the strife. And for the most part, 
those who were meaner in understanding were the more successful; for fearing their own 
deficiency, and the ability of their adversaries, apprehensive that the}' should be worsted in 
argument and eloquence, and outwitted by the intellectual adroitness on the other side, 
they went audaciously on to deeds of violence ; but their opponents, contemptuous in the 
presumption of foreknowledge, and not feeling the need of securing by action what could 
be compassed by genius, the more easily perished undefended." — Ed. 



B. C. 426] SIXTH YEAR OF THE WAR. 287 



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From the Frieze of the Parthenon. Panathenaic Procession. 



CHAPTER XXVni. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. — FROM THE SEDITION AT CORCTRA 
TO THE PEACE OF NICIAS. 

I 1. Sixth Year of the War. Ketum of the Plague. Purification of Delos. § 2. Seventh 
Year. Fortification of Pylos. ^ 3. Attempts of the Lacedsemonians to recover Pylos. 
§ 4. Ai-rival and Victory of the Athenian Fleet. Blockade of Sphacteria. ^ 5. The 
Lacedemonians sue for Peace at Athens. Extravagant Demands of Cleon. § 6. Kenewal 
of Hostilities. §7. Debates in the Assembly. Cleon elected General. § 8. Capture ot 
Sphacteria. \ 9. Advantages of the Victory. § 10. Proceedings at Corcyra. Slaughter 
of the Oligarchs. § 11. Eighth Year of the War. Capture of Cythera. § 12. Invasion ot 
the Megarid and Boeotia by the Athenians. Capture of Nissea, the Port of Megara. 
Defeat of the Athenians at the Battle of DeHum. § 13. Brasidas in Thrace. Takes 
Amphipolis. Banishment of Thucydides. § 14. Ninth Year of the War. A Truce 
between Sparta and Athens. The War continued in Thrace. § 15. Tenth Year of the 
War. Cleon proceeds to Amphipolis. His Defeat and Death. Death of Brasidas. 
4 16. Eleventh Yeai' of the War. Fifty Years' Peace between Athens and Sparta. 

§ 1. The beginning of the sixth year of the war (b. c. 426) wa8 
marked by natural calamities which seemed to present a counterpart to 
the moral disturbances which were agitating Greece. Floods and earth- 
quakes of unusual violence and frequency occurred in various parts ; and 
the Lacedsemonians, alarmed at these portents, abstained from their 
intended invasion of Attica. The military operations of the Athenians 
were unimportant. The plague, which had reappeared at Athens towards 
the close of the preceding year, was now making fearful ravages. This 
scourge was attributed to the anger of Apollo ; and in order, as it seems, 
to propitiate that deity, a complete purification of Delos was performed in 
the autumn. All the bodies interred there were exhumed and reburied in 
the neighboring island of Rhenea; whilst for the future it was ordered 
that no deaths or births should be suffered to take place on the sacred 



288 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIIl. 

island. At the same time the celebration of the Delian festival, to be 
renewed every fourth year, was revived with extraordinary splendor; 
and thus in some measure compensated the Athenians for their exclusion, 
through the war, from the Olympic and Pythian games. 

§ 2. In the seventh year of the war (b. c. 425) the Lacedemonian army 
under Agis, after a stay of only fifteen days in the Attic territory, was 
recalled by the news that the Athenians had established a military post 
at Pylos in Messenia. In consequence of circumstances to which we 
shall have occasion to allude hereafter, the Athenians had sent a fleet of 
forty ships to Sicily, under the command of Eurymedon and Sophocles ; 
but on their way thither these officers were directed to stop at Corcyra, 
and to assist the people against the ohgarchs, who, as already related, had 
fortified themselves at Mount Istone, and were annoying the capital. 
Demosthenes, who had acquired great glory by a campaign against the 
Ambracians, had also embarked in the same fleet, with a kind of roving 
commission to make descents on the Peloponnesian coasts. Pylos, on the 
modern bay of Navarino, struck him as an eligible spot on wliich to 
establish some of the Messenians from Naupactus, since it was a strong 
position, from which they might annoy the Lacedaemonians, and excite 
revolt among their Helot kinsmen. As the Peloponnesian fleet, however, 
was announced to have arrived at Corcyra, Eurymedon and Sophocles 
Avere averse to the delay which the scheme of Demosthenes would occa- 
sion. But an accident caused its accomphshment. The fleet had scarcely 
passed Pylos, when it was driven back to that spot by a violent storm ; 
and as the bad weather continued for some time, the soldiers on board 
amused themselves, under the dii-ections of Demosthenes, in constructing 
a sort of rude fortification. The nature of the ground was favorable for 
the work, and in five or six days a wall was thrown up sufficient for the 
purposes of defence. Demosthenes undertook to garrison the place. Five 
ships and two hundred Hoplites were left behind with him ; and, being 
afterwards joined by some Messenian privateers, he appears altogether to 
have possessed a force of about one thousand men. 

§ 3. This insult^o the Lacedemonian territory caused great alarm and 
indignation at Sparta. The Peloponnesian fleet, under Thrasymehdas, was 
ordered from Corcyra to Pylos ; and at the same time Agis evacuated 
Attica, and marched towards the same place. So vast a force, both naval 
and military, seemed to threaten destruction to the little garrison. Tlira- 
symelidas, on arriving with the fleet, immediately occupied the small unin- 
habited and densely wooded island of Sphacteria, which, with the exception 
of two narrow channels on the north and south, almost blocked up the 
entrance of the bay. Between the island and the mainland was a spa- 
cious basin, in which Thrasymelidas stationed his ships. 

It was on this side that Demosthenes anticipated the most dangerous 
attack. The Lacedemonians were notoriously unskilful in besieging walls, 



B. C. 425.] 



LACEDEMONIANS ATTACK PYLOS. 



289 



and on the land side a few imperfectly armed troops would suffice to keep 
their whole army at bay. But towards the sea was a small open space 
which remained unfortified. Here, therefore Demosthenes, after hauling 
his three remaining triremes ashore, — for on the approach of the enemy he 
had despatched two to Eurymedon, to solicit assistance, — took post himself, 
with sixty chosen hophtes. 

The assault from the sea was led by Brasidas, one of the bravest and 
most distinguished commanders that Sparta ever produced. The narrowness 
of the landing-place admitted only a few triremes to approach at once. 
Brasidas stood on the prow of the foremost, animating his men by his 
words and gestures ; but he was soon disabled by numerous wounds, and 
fell backwards into his vessel, fainting with loss of blood. After repeated 
attempts on this and the following day, the Lacedaemonians were unable to 
effect a landing; whilst the Athenians considered their success decisive 
enough to justify the erection of a trophy, the chief ornament of which 
was the shield of Brasidas, which had dropped into the water. 




A. Island of Sphacteria. 



Bay of Pylos. 

B Pylos. C. The modem Navarino. 

E. Promontory of Coryphasium. 



D D. Bay of Pylos. 



§ 4. Whilst the Lacedaemonians were preparing for another assault, 
they were surprised by the appearance of the Athenian fleet. They had 



37 



290 HISTORY OF GREECE. |Chap. XXVIII 

strangely neglected to secure the entrances into the bay : and although 
the Athenian admiral spent the first day in reconnoitring, they were stiU 
either so inconceivably slow, or so paralyzed by surprise and terror, that, 
when on the morrow the Athenian ships came sailing through both the 
undefended channels, many of their triremes were still moored, and part 
of their crews ashore. The battle which ensued was desperate. Both 
sides fought with extraordinary valor ; but victory at length declared for 
the Athenians. Five Peloponnesian ships were captured ; the rest were 
saved only by running them ashore, where they were protected by the 
Lacedaemonian army. 

The Athenians, thus masters of the sea, were enabled to blockade the 
island of Sphacteria, in which the flower of the Lacedgemonian army was 
shut up, many of them native Spartans of the highest families. In so 
grave an emergency messengers were sent to Sparta for advice. The 
Ephors themselves immediately repaired to the spot ; and so desponding 
was their view of the matter, that they saw no issue from it but a peace. 
They therefore proposed and obtained an armistice for the purpose of 
opening negotiations at Athens. They agreed to surrender their whole 
fleet, and to abstain from all attacks upon Pylos till the return of the 
envoys, when their ships were to be restored. Meanwhile, the Athenians 
were to continue the blockade of Sphacteria, but not to commit any acts 
of hostility against it ; whilst the Lacedaemonians were to be allowed to 
supply the besieged with provisions enough for their subsistence during 
the armistice. 

§ 5. Great was the sensation excited at Athens by beholding the pride 
of Sparta thus humbled and her envoys suing for peace. Cleon availed 
himself of the elation of the moment to insist on extravagant demands. 
Nothing less would satisfy him than the restoration of those places which 
Athens had ceded fourteen years before, when the thirty years' truce 
was concluded ; namely, Nisaea, Pegse, Troezen, and Achaia ; and his in- 
fluence in the assembly induced it to adopt his views. The Lacedaemo- 
nian envoys, perceiving that nothing could be hoped from the assembly, 
proposed a private negotiation with a few chosen individuals. But Cleon 
would not hear of this arrangement, and when the envoys attempted to 
remonstrate, he completely bullied and silenced them by his violence, and 
caused them to be sent back to Pylos, as they had come, in an Athenian 
trireme. 

§ 6. When the envoys returned, the Lacedemonians demanded the 
restoration of their fleet, according to agreement ; but Eurymedon refused 
to comply, under the, apparently, false pretext that the Lacedaemonians 
had violated the armistice by an attempt to surprise Pylos. Hostilities 
were now resumed, but without any decisive result. The blockade of 
Sphacteria began to grow tedious and harassing. The force upon it 
continually received supplies of provisions, either from swimmers, who 



B C. 425.] CLEON ELECTED GENERAL. 29i 

towed skins filled with linseed and poppj-seed mixed with honey, or from 
Helots, who, induced by the promise of emancipation and large rewards, 
eluded the blockading squadron during dark and stormy nights, and 
landed cargoes on the back of the island. The summer, moreover, was 
fast wearing away, and the storms of winter might probably necessitate 
the raising of the blockade altogether. Under these circumstances, De- 
mosthenes began to contemplate a descent upon the island ; with which 
view he collected reinforcements from Zacynthus and Naupactus, and also 
sent a message to Athens to explain the unfavorable state of the blockade, 
and to request further assistance. 

§ 7. These tidings were very distasteful to the Athenians, who had 
looked upon Sphacteria as their certain prey. They began to regret 
having let slip the favorable opportunity for making a peace, and to vent 
their displeasure upon Cleon, the director of their conduct on that occasion. 
But Cleon put on a face of brass. He charged the messengei's from 
Pylos with having misrepresented the facts of the case ; and when that 
position proved untenable, began to abuse the strategi. His political 
opponent, Nicias, was then one of those officers, a man of quiet disposition 
and moderate abilities, but — a pecuhar distinction in those days — thor- 
oughly honest and incorruptible, pure in his morals and sincerely relig- 
ious- Him Cleon now singled out for his vituperation, and, pointing at him 
with his finger, exclaimed, " It would be easy enough to take the island 
if our generals were men. K /were Strategus, I would do it at once!" 
This burst of the tanner made the assembly laugh. He was saluted 
with cries of "Why don't you go then?" and Nicias, thinking probably 
to catch his opponent in his own trap, seconded the voice of the assembly, 
by offering to place at his disposal whatever force he might deem necessary 
for the enterprise. Cleon at first endeavored to avoid the dangerous 
honor thus thrust upon him. But the more he drew back, the louder were 
the assembly in calling upon him to accept the office ; and as Nicias seri- 
ously repeated his proposition, he adopted with a good grace what there 
was no longer any possibility of evading. Nay, he even declined the as- 
sistance of the regular Athenian hoplites, and engaged, with some heavy- 
armed Lemnian and Imbrian troops, together with some Thracian peltasts 
and four hundred bowmen, in addition to the soldiers already at Pylos, 
to take Sphacteria within twenty days, and either kill aU the Lacedae- 
monians upon it, or bring them prisoners to Athens. 

§ 8. Never did general set out upon an enterprise under circumstances 
more singular ; but, what was still more extraordinary, fortune enabled 
him to make his promise good. In fact, as we have seen, Demosthenes 
had already resolved on attacking the island. Cleon procured that general 
to be named his second in command, and thus stepped in, with a nominal 
authority, to intercept the honors which were in reality due to another 
On the other hand, Nicias is not free from blame on this occasion. He 



292 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIII. 

seems to have given the command to Cleon, whom he deemed totally in 
competent for it, merely with the view of ruining a political opponent, and 
to have left the interests of Athens wholly out of sight.* 

When Cleon arrived at Pylos he found everything prepared for the 
attack. Accident favored the enterprise. A fire kindled by some Athe- 
nian sailors, who had landed for the purpose of cooking their dinner, caught 
and destroyed the woods with which the island was overgrown, and thus 
deprived the Lacedaemonians of one of their principal defences. Never- 
theless, such was the awe inspired by the reputation of the Spartan arms, 
that Demosthenes considered it necessary to land about 10,000 soldiers of 
different descriptions, among whom were 800 Athenian hoplites, although 
the Lacedaemonian force consisted of only about 420 men. Their com- 
mander, Epitadas, was posted with the main body in the centre of the 
island. An outpost of thirty hoplites defended the extremity farthest from 
Pylos. The end of the island facing that place, steep and rugged by 
nature, was rendered still stronger by a circuit of rude stones, of ancient 
and unknown origin, which answered the purpose of a fort. The Atheni- 
ans, having landed before daybreak, surprised and cut to pieces the ad- 
vanced guard of thirty hoplites. Then Demosthenes, having divided his 
light-armed troops into bodies of about 200 men each, which were to hover 
round and annoy the enemy, drew up his 800 hoplites in battle aiTaj near 
the spot where he had landed. Epitadas had therefore to advance against 
him with his main body, about 360 in number, over ground obstructed by 
the ashes and stumps of the burnt wood, and amidst a shower of missiles 
from the light troops on his flanks and rear. At length, distressed by a 
species of warfare wliich he had no means of repelling, and almost blinded 
by the dust and ashes, Epitadas ordered his men to retreat to the stone 
fort at the extremity of the island, whither they were followed by the 
Athenian hoplites. Here, however, having the advantage of the ground, 
and being able to use their spears and swords in close combat, the Lace- 
dsemonians for a long while kept their assailants at bay ; till some Messe- 
nians, stealing round by the sea-shore, over crags and cliffs which the 
Lacedaemonians had deemed impracticable, suddenly appeared on the 
high ground which overhung their rear. They now began to give way, 
and would soon have been all slain ; but Cleon and Demosthenes, being 
anxious to carry them prisoners to Athens, called off their men from the 
pursuit, and sent a herald to summon the Lacedaemonians to surrender. 
The latter, in token of compliance, dropped their shields and waved 
their hands above their heads. They requested, however, permission to 
communicate with their countrymen on the mainland ; who, after two or 

* It is more probable that Nicias proposed the appointment of Cleon, merely to show up 
the cowardice and boastfulness of the demagoo^ue, without anticipating the possibility of 
his actually being forced to accept the command by the populace, ever ready to sacrifice a 
serious interest for the sake of enjoying a joke. — Ed. 



B. C, 425.] CAPTURK OF SPHACTERIA. 298 

three communications, sent them a final message, — " to take counsel for 
themselves, but to do notliing disgraceful." The survivors then surrendered. 
They were 292 in number, 120 of whom were native Spartans, belonging 
to the first families. By tliis surrender the prestige of the Spartan arms 
was in a great degree destroyed. The Spartans were not, indeed, deemed 
invincible ; but their previous feats, especially at Thermopylas, had in- 
spired the notion that they would rather die than yield ; an opinion which 
could now no longer be entertained. 

§ 9. Cleon had thus performed his promise. On the day after the vic- 
tory, he and Demosthenes started with the prisoners for Athens, where 
they arrived within twenty days from the time of Cleon's departure. Al- 
together, this aflFair was one of the most favorable for the Athenians that 
had occurred during the war. The prisoners would serve not only for a 
guaranty against future invasions, which might be averted by threatening 
to put them to death, but also as a means for extorting advantageous con- 
ditions whenever a peace should be concluded. Nay, the victory itself 
was of considerable importance, since it enabled the Athenians to place 
Pylos in a better posture of defence, and, by garrisoning it with Messe- 
nians from Naupactus, to create a stronghold whence Laconia might be 
overrun and ravaged at pleasure. The Lacedaemonians themselves were 
so sensible of these things, that they sent repeated messages to Athens to 
propose a peace, but which the Athenians altogether disregarded. 

§ 10. Meanwhile, after the victory at Sphacteria, Eurymedon and Soph- 
ocles proceeded with the Athenian fleet to Corcyra, where, in conjunction 
with the people, they took by storm the post of the oligarchs on Mount 
Istone. The latter at first retired to an inaccessible peak, but subsequently 
surrendered themselves on condition of being sent to Athens to be judged 
by the Athenian assembly. Eurymedon, the same man, it will be observed, 
who had before abandoned the Corcyrgeans to all the fury of civil discord, 
assented to these conditions, and caused the prisoners to be secured in the 
small adjoining island of Ptychia. But he took not the shghtest pains 
to carry out the agreement ; nay, he even connived at the artifices of the 
Corcyraean democracy to entrap the prisoners into a breach of the capitu- 
lation, and thus procure a pretext for their destruction. For this purpose 
emissaries in the guise of friends were sent over to Ptychia to persuade 
the prisoners that Eurymedon intended to hand them over to their enemies, 
and thus succeeded in inducing some of them to escape in a boat provided 
for that purpose. The boat was seized in the act, and Eurymedon now 
delivered up the prisoners to the democratical party. They were at first 
confined in a large building, whence, chained two and two together, they 
were led out to execution in companies of twenty. They advanced through 
a road lined with armed men, who singled out their private enemies, and 
struck and wounded them till they perished. " These scenes," says a great 
historian, " are real prototypes of the September massacres at Paris : all 



294 , HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIU 

the prisoners, just as at Paris, were led from the prison between two rows 
of armed men, and cut to pieces." * What, however, renders this scene 
still more disgusting than the Parisian massacres, is, that a third party — 
Eurymedon, with his Athenians — looked on in cold blood, and saw these 
atrocities perpetrated without making the slightest attempt to prevent them. 
After three companies had been destroyed the remaining prisoners refused 
to quit the building, or to allow any one to enter it ; at the same time 
piteously imploring the Athenians to kill them, rather than abandon them 
to the cruelties of their countrymen. But Eurymedon was inexorable. 
The people now unroofed part of the building, and assailed the prisoners 
with showers of tiles and arrows, till, in order to escape this lingering fate, 
they were driven to commit suicide. The work of death proceeded through 
the night. At daybreak the people entered the building with carts, and 
piling upon them the dead bodies, in number about three hundred, carried 
them out of the city. 

§ 11. The eighth year of the war (b. c. 424) opened with brilliant 
prospects for the Athenians. But their good fortune had now reached its 
culminating point ; and before the year closed, their defeat at the battle of 
Delium and the loss of their empire in Thrace more than counterbalanced 
all the advantages they had previously gained. At first, however, success 
still attended their arms. Nicias reduced the important island of Cythera, 
at the southern extremity of Laconia, and placed garrisons in the towns of 
Cythera and Scandeia. He then proceeded to the coasts of Laconia, which 
he ravaged in various places. Among his conquests here was the town of 
Thyrea, where the Lacedaemonians had allowed the JEginetans to settle 
after their expulsion from their own island. Thyrea was destroyed, and 
the surviving ^ginetans carried to Athens and put to death. Among the 
horrors which the great historian of the Peloponnesian war has noted as 
characterizing the times, the murder of two thousand Helots by the Lace- 
daemonians stands conspicuous. Alarmed for their own safety since the 
establishment of an Athenian and Messenian force at Pylos, the Lacedae- 
monians about this time proclaimed that those Helots who had distinguished 
themselves by their services during the war should come forward and claim 
their liberty. A large body appeared, out of whom two thousand were 
selected as worthy of emancipation. Crowned with garlands, and honored 
with all the imposing ceremonies of religion, the unhappy Helots paid 
with their lives for the liberty thus solemnly acquired. In a short time 
they all disappeared, no man knew how, by secret orders from the Ephors, 
who took this perfidious and detestable method to rid themselves of for- 
midable enemies. 

§ 12. Elate with their continued good fortune, the Athenians aimed at 
nothing less than the recovery of all the possessions which they had held be- 

* Niebuhr, " Lectures on Ancient History," Vol. II. p. 69. 



B. C. 424.] BATTLE OF DELIUM. 295 

fore the thirty years' truce. For this purpose they planned two impor- 
tant expeditions, one against Megara and the other against Bceotia. In 
the former they were partially successful. They seized Nisiea, the port of 
Megara, which they permanently occupied with an Athenian garrison ; 
but they were prevented from obtaining possession of Megara itself by the 
energy of Brasidas, who was at that time in the neighborhood of Corinth, 
collecting troops for his Thracian expedition. Receiving intelligence of 
the danger of Megara, he immediately marched to the assistance of the 
city with a considerable force, which the Athenians did not venture to 
attack. 

The expedition against Boeotia was attended with the most disastrous 
results. Some Boeotian exiles, and other malecontent citizens, had formed 
a plan to betray Siphae, on the Gulf of Corinth, and Chasronea, on the 
borders of Phocis, into the hands of the Athenians, who were on the same 
day to invade Boeotia from the south, and to seize the temple of Apollo at 
Delium, a place about five miles from Tanagra, strongly situated upon the 
cliffs on the eastern coast. It was anticipated that these simultaneous 
attacks at various points would divide the Boeotian forces, and render the 
enterprise easy of execution. But the scheme was betrayed, and mis- 
carried. Demosthenes, who was to attack Siphas and Chaei-onea, found 
those places preoccupied by a formidable Boeotian force, which rendered 
vain all hopes of surprising them. Hippocrates, who commanded the 
army of invasion from the south, proceeded to execute his part in the 
arrangement, and marched to Delium with the large force of seven thou- 
sand. Athenian hoplites, together with twenty-five thousand light-armed 
troops and several hundred cavalry. A day's march brought him to 
Delium, where he immediately fortified the sanctuary of Apollo mth a 
rampart and ditch, besides other works. Wlien these were completed, a 
garrison was left in the place, and the army commenced its homeward 
march. On arriving at the heights between Delium and the plain of 
Oropus, they were encountered by the Boeotians, who had assembled in 
great force at Tanagra. Their army consisted of about seven thousand 
Boeotian hoplites, some of whom were the very flower of the Theban 
warriors, ten thousand light-armed troops, five hundred peltasts, and one 
thousand horse. They were led by the eleven Boeotarchs then at the 
head of the Boeotian confederacy, though the supreme command seems to 
have been vested, probably alternately, in the two Boeotarchs of Thebes, 
Pagondas and Aranthides. All the Boeotarchs, with the exception of 
Pagondas, were of opinion that, as the Athenians seemed to be in full 
retreat, they should be suffered to retire unmolested. But that com- 
mander, disregarding the opinion of his colleagues, appealed to the patri- 
otic and religious feelings of the soldiers. He painted in strong colors 
the danger of suffering this insult to their territory to pass unpunished, 
and pointed out that the sacrifices were favorable for an attack, whilst, on 



296 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXVIII 

the other hand, the Athenians had incurred the anger of Apollo by violat- 
ing his temple. Having by these representations persuaded the Boeotians 
to hazard an engagement, he drew up the army in order of battle under 
the brow of a hill which concealed them from the Athenians. Hippocrates, 
on his side, hastened to prepare his troops for the battle. His hoplites 
were drawn up in a line of eight deep, having the light -armed troops 
and cavalry on the flanks. The heavy Bceotian phalanx, on the contrary, 
was twenty-five deep ; the Theban hoplites occupying the right, with the 
other heavy-armed Boeotians on the left and in the centre. The light- 
armed troops and cavalry were ranged, as in the Athenian line, upon the 
flanks. The Boeotians, ascending the hill in this array, as soon as they 
came in sight of the Athenians, raised the war-shout and charged, before 
Hippocrates had finished addressing his men. Ravines at both extremities 
of the line prevented the light troops from engaging; but the serried ranks 
of the hoplites met in desperate conflict. The left wing of the Boeotians 
was repulsed ; but on the right the skill and valor of the chosen Theban 
warriors who led the van, as well as the superior weight of the deep and 
densely compacted phalanx, bore down all resistance. At the same time 
Pagondas, having sent round his cavahy to attack the Athenian right, 
restored the fortune of the day on that side also. The rout of the Athe- 
nians was now complete. Some fled back to Delium, some to Oropus, 
others to the heights of Parnes. Hippocrates himself fell in the engage- 
ment, together with one thousand hoplites ; a loss about double that of the 
Boeotians. Fortunately for the Athenians, the battle had commenced late in 
the day, and they were thus rescued by the friendly shades of night from 
the pursuit and massacre which would otherwise have overtaken them. 

When on the morrow an Athenian herald asked the customary permis- 
sion to bury the slain, the Boeotians reproached the Athenians with the 
violation of Apollo's sanctuary, and refused the sacred rites of sepulture 
till the sacrilege should be expiated, and Deliam evacuated. They imme- 
diately invested that place, which surrendered after a siege of seventeen 
days. The greater part of the garrison, however, succeeded in escaping by 
sea, but about two hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the Boeotians. 
Altogether the battle of Delium was the greatest and most decisive fought 
during the flrst period of the war. An interesting feature of the battle is 
that both Socrates and his pupil Alcibiades were engaged in it, the former 
among the hoplites, the latter in the cavahy. Socrates distinguished him- 
self by his bravery, and was one of those who, instead of throwing down 
their arms, kept together in a compact body, and repulsed the attacks of 
the pursuing horse. His retreat was also protected by Alcibiades. 

§ 13. This disastrous battle was speedily followed by the overthrow of 
the Athenian empire in Thrace. At the request of Perdiccas, king of 
Macedonia, and of the Chalcidian towns, who had sued for help against 
the Athenians, Brasidas was sent by the LacedEemonian government into 



B. C. 424.] 



BRASIDAS IN THRACE. 



297 



Thrace, at the head of seven hundred Helot hoplites and such others as 
he could succeed in raising in Greece. While engaged in levying troop3 
in the neighborhood of Corinth, he saved Megara from falling into the 
hands of the Athenians, as has been already related. Having obtained 
one thousand Peloponnesian hoplites, in addition to the seven hundred 
mentioned above, he succeeded, by a rapid and dexterous march through 
the hostile country of Thessaly, in effecting a junction with Perdiccas, 
with whom he marched into Thrace. Here he proclaimed that he was come 
to deliver the Grecian cities from the tyrannous yoke of Athens. His 
bravery, his kind and conciliating demeanor, his probity, moderation, and 
good faith, soon gained him the respect and love of the allies of Athens in 
that quarter ; whose defection was likewise promoted by the news of the 
Athenian reverses. Acanthus and Staglrus hastened to open their gates 
to him ; and early in the ensuing winter, by means of forced marches, 
he suddenly and unexpectedly appeared before the important Athenian 
colony of Amphipolis on the Strymon. In that town the Athenian party 
was the stronger, and sent a message for assistance to Thucydides, the 
historian, who, in conjunction with Eucles, was then general in those parts. 
Thucydides hastened with seven ships from Thasos, and succeeded in 
eecuring Eion at the mouth of the Strymon ; but Amphipohs, which lay a 
little higher up the river, allured by the favorable terms offered, had 




Plan of the neighborhood of Amphipolis. 



1. Site of Amphipolis. 

2. Site of Eion. 

8. Ridge connectiog Amphipolis with 
Mount Fangseus. 



6. Lake Cercinitis. 

7. Mount Cerdylium. 

8. Mount Pangasus. 



already surrendered to Brasidas. For his want of vigilance on this occa- 
Bion, Thucydides was, on the motion of Cleon, sentenced to banishment, 
and spent the following twenty years of his life in exUe. From Amphip- 
olis Brasidas proceeded to the easternmost peninsula of Chalcidice, where 



38 



298 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXVIIL 

most of the towns hastened to surrender. At Torone, on the Sithonian 
peninsula, the gates were ojiened by an anti- Athenian party. The Athe- 
nian garrison fled to a neighboring fort ; but Brasidas took the place by 
storm, and put all the prisoners to the swoi^d. 

§ 14. The Athenians were so much depressed by their defeat at De- 
lium, that they neglected to take vigorous measures for arresting the 
progress of Brasidas. They now began to think seriously of peace, and 
to entertain the proposals of the Lacedagmonians, who were on their side 
solicitous about their prisoners stiU in custody at Athens. Early in b. c. 
423, the ninth year of the war, a truce was concluded for a year, with a 
\'iew to the subsequent adjustment of a definitive and permanent peace. 
The negotiations for that purpose were, however, suddenly interrupted by 
the news that Scione had revolted to Brasidas. This revolt appears to 
have taken place two days after the conclusion of the truce ; and as one 
of the conditions was that everything should remain in statu quo till 
peace was definitively concluded, the Athenians demanded that the town 
should be restored. With this demand Brasidas refused to comply. 
Excited by the speeches of Cleon, the Athenians would not listen to any 
proposals for arbitration, and sent an armament against Scione, with 
orders that every man in the place should be put to death. 

The war was thus revived in those distant regions, but nearer home the 
truce was observed. Brasidas, who had been deserted by the faithless 
Perdiccas, threw himself into Torone on the approach of the Athenians. 
Nicias and Nicostratus, who had arrived in Chalcidice with fifty triremes 
and a large body of troops, commenced operations against Mende, which 
had also revolted. The town was surrendered by a party among the 
citizens : the Lacedaemonian garrison contrived to escape to Scione^ 
which town the Athenians proceeded to invest ; and when Nicias had 
completely blockaded it, he retum-jd to Athens. 

§ 15. Things remained in this state till the beginning of the year b. c. 
422, when the truce expired. Early in August, Cleon, having been 
appointed to the command, proceeded against Scione, with a fleet of thirty 
triremes, carrying twelve hundred hoplites, three hundred cavalry, and a 
large force of subsidiary troops. In the absence of Brasidas he succeeded 
in taking Torone and Galepsus, but failed in an attempt upon Stagirus. 
He then lay for some time inactive at Eion, till the murmurs of his troops 
compelled him to proceed against Amphipolis. Thither Brasidas had 
also directed his march, with an army of two thousand hoplites, three 
hundred Greek cavalry, and a large body of light-armed Thracians. He 
encamped on the heights of Cerdylium, on the western bank of the river, 
whence he could survey all the movements of the enemy; but on the 
approach of Cleon, he threw all his troops into the town. That general 
encamped on a rising ground on the eastern side of Amphipolis. Having 
deserted the peaceful art of dressing hides for the more hazardous trade 



B. C. 422.] DEATH OF BRASIDAS AND CLEON. 29S 

of war, in which he was almost totally inexperienced, and having now no 
Demosthenes to direct his movements, Cleon was thrown completely off 
his guard by a very ordinary stratagem on the part of Brasidas, who con- 
trived to give the town quite a deserted and peaceful appearance. Cleon 
suffered his troops to fall into disorder, till he was suddenly surprised by 
the astounding news that Brasidas was preparing for a sally. Cleon at 
once resolved to retreat. But his skill was equal to his valor. He had 
no conception that he could be attacked till Brasidas had drawn out his 
men and formed them, as if they were on parade, in regular order. He 
therefore conducted his retreat in the most disorderly manner. His left 
wing had already filed off, and his centre with straggling ranks was in the 
act of following, when Brasidas ordered the gates of the town to be flung 
open, and, rushing out at the head of only one hundred and fifty chosen 
soldiers, charged the retreating columns in flank. They were immediately 
routed ; but as Brasidas was hastening to attack the Athenian right, 
which was only just breaking ground, and where Cleon himself was 
posted, he received a mortal wound and was carried off the field. Though 
his men were forming on the hill, Cleon fled as fast as he could on the 
approach of the enemy, but was pursued and slain by a Thracian peltast. 
In spite, however, of the disgraceful flight of their general, the right wing 
maintained their ground for a considerable time, till some cavalry and 
peltasts issuing from Amphipolis attacked them in flank and rear, and 
compelled them to fly. On assembling again at Eion, it was found that 
half the Athenian hoplites had been slain. Brasidas was carried into 
Amphipolis, and lived long enough to receive the tidings of his victory. 
He was interred within the walls with great military pomp, in the centre 
of what thenceforth became the chief agora ; he was proclaimed oekist, 
or founder of the town ; and was worshipped as a hero with annual 
games and sacrifices. 

§ 16. By the death of Brasidas and Cleon, the two chief obstacles to a 
peace were removed ; for the former loved war for the sake of its glory, 
the latter for the handle which it afforded for agitation and for attacking 
his political opponents. The Athenian Nicias, and the Spartan king 
Pleistoanax, zealously forwarded the negotiations, and in the spring of the 
year b. c. 421, a peace for fifty years, commonly called the peace of 
Nicias, was concluded on the basis of a mutual restitution of prisoners and 
places captured during the war. The Thebans, however, retained Platjea, 
on the plea that it had been voluntarily surrendered, and on the same 
grounds Athens was allowed to hold Nisaea, Anactorium, and Solhum. 
Neutral towns were to remain independent, and pay only the assessment of 
Aristeides. By this treaty Sparta sacrificed the interests of her allies in 
favor of her own. Her confederates viewed it with jealousy and distrust, 
and four of them, namely, the Boeotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Mega- 
rians, positively refused to ratify it. Alarmed at this circumstance, as well 



300 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXVIH 



as at tlie expiration of her tMrty years' truce with Argos, Sparta soon 
afterwards concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Athens, 
with the stipulation that each might increase or diminish at pleasure the 
number of its allies and subjects. 




Coin of AmphipolUt 



B.C. 415.J 



LKAGUE OF ARGOS. 



301 




...r.& 



Centaur from the Metopes of the Parthenon. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. PROM THE PEACE OP NICIAS TO 
THE EXPEDITION OF THE ATHENIANS TO SICILY. 

§ 1. League of Argos, Corinth, Elea, Mantinea, and Chalcidic^. § 2. Transactions between 
Sparta and Athens. \ 3. Policy and Character of Alcibiades. \ 4. He advocates a 
League with Argos. Resorts to a Stratagem to procure it. § 5. Alcibiades Victor at 
Olympia. His Magnificence. § 6. He proceeds to Peloponnesus. § 7. Proceedings of the 
Lacedseraonians. Battle of Mantinea. ^ 8. Revolutions at Argos. A Democracy estab- 
lished. § 9. Conquest of Melos by the Athenians. § 10. Intervention of the Athenians 
in Sicily. § 11. Embassy of the Egestteans. They deceive the Athenians respecting 
their Wealth. § 12. The Athenians resolve on an Expedition to Sicily. § 13. Prepara- 
tions at Athens. Popular Delusion. § 14. Mutilation of the Herm£e. Accusation of 
Alcibiades. § 15. Departure of the Athenian Fleet for Sicily. 



§ 1. It has been mentioned, that several of the allies of Sparta were 
dissatisfied with the peace which she had concluded ; and soon afterwards 
some of them determined to revive the ancient pretensions of Argos, and 
to make her the head of a new confederacy, which should include all 
G-reece, with the exception of Sparta and Athens. The movement was 
begun by the Corinthians, who felt themselves aggrieved because the 
Lacedaemonians had allowed Athens to retain Solhum and Anactorium, 
The league was soon joined by the Eleans, the Mantineans, and the Chal- 
cidians. But they in vain endeavored to persuade the powerful city of 
Tegea to unite with them ; whilst the oligarchical governments of Boeotia 
and Megara also stood aloof. 



302 HISTORY OF GREECE [ChAP. XXIX 

§ 2. Between Sparta and Athens themselves matters were far from 
being on a satisfactory footing. Sparta confessed her inability to compel 
the Boeotians and Corinthians to accede to the peace, or even to restore 
the town of Amphipolis. After the death of Brasidas, Clearidas had suc- 
ceeded to the command of Amphipolis ; and he now pretended that he was 
not strong enough to surrender it against the will of the inhabitants. 
However, he withdrew with his garrison from the place ; and the Athe- 
nians do not appear to have made any attempt to take possession of it. 
All that they effected in that quarter was to reduce Scione, when the 
bloody decree of Cleon was carried into execution. Athens consequently 
refused to evacuate Pylos, though she removed the Helots and Messenians 
from it. 

§ 3. In the negotiations which ensued respecting the surrender of Pylos, 
Alcibiades took a prominent part. This extraordinary man had already 
obtained immense influence at Athens. Young, rich, handsome, profligate, 
and clever, Alcibiades was the very model of an Athenian man of fashion. 
In lineage he was a striking contrast to the plebeian orators of the day. 
The Athenian public, in spite of its excessive democracy, was anything 
but insensible to the prestige of high birth ; and Alcibiades traced his 
paternal descent from the ^acid heroes Eurysaces and Aias (Ajax), whilst 
on his mother's side he claimed relationship with the Alcm^onidse, and 
consequently with Pericles. On the death of his father, Cleinias, Pericles 
had become his guardian. From early youth the conduct of Alcibiades was 
marked by violence, recklessness, and vanity. He delighted in astonishing 
the more sober portion of the citizens by his capricious and extravagant 
feats. Nothing, not even the sacredness of the laws, was secure from his 
petulance. Sometimes we find him beating a schoolmaster for not having 
a copy of Homer in his school, or interrupting the performances of the 
theatre by striking his fellow choregus ; and on one occasion he effaces 
with his own hand an indictment published against a Thasian poet, and 
defies both prosecutor and magistrate to proceed with it. His beauty, his 
wit, and his escapades had made him the darling of all the Athenian 
ladies, nor did the men regard him with less admiration. But he was 
utterly destitute of morality, whether public or private. The " lion's 
whelp," as he is termed by Aristophanes, was even suspected, in his bound- 
less ambition, of a design to enslave his fellow-citizens. His vices, how- 
ever, were partly redeemed by some brilliant qualities. He possessed 
both boldness of design and vigor of a,ction ; and though scarcely more 
than thirty at the time of which we are now speaking, he had already on 
several occasions distinguished himself by his bravery. His more serious 
studies were made subservient to the purposes of his ambition, for which 
some skill as an orator was necessary. In order to obtain it he frequented 
the schools of the sophists, and exercised himself in the dialectics of Pro- 
dicus, Pi'otagoras, and above all of Socrates. As an orator he seems to 



B. C. 421.] ALCIBIADES. 303 

have attained a respectable, but not a first, rank. He had not the rapid 
and spontaneous flow of ideas and words which characterized the eloquence 
of Pericles. He would frequently hesitate in order to cull the most choice 
and elegant phrase ; and a lisp, whether natural or affected, which turned 
all the r's into I's, naust have been a serious drawback to his oratory. 

§ 4. Such was the man who now opposed the application of the Lace- 
d^emonian ambassadors. It is characteristic of him that personal pique 
was the motive of his opposition. The politics of his ancestors had been 
democratic, and his grandfather was a violent opponent of the Peisistratidse. 
But he himself on his first entrance into public hfe, a httle before the peace 
of Nicias, had manifested oligarchical sentiments, and even endeavored 
to renew an ancient tie of hospitality which had formerly connected his 
family with Sparta. With the view of becoming the Spartan proxenos at 
Athens, he had been assiduous m his attentions towards the Spartan pris- 
oners, and had taken an active part in forwarding the peace. But the 
Spartan government rejected his advances, and even sneered at the idea ' 
of intrusting their pohtical interests to a youth known only by his insolence 
anl profligacy. The petulant Alcibiades was not the man to brook such 
an affront. He immediately threw himself, with all the restless energy of 
his character, into the party opposed to Sparta, now deprived of its most 
conspicuous leader by the death of Cleon. He began to advocate a league 
with Argos, in which city the democratic party at that time predominated, 
and sent a private message to his friends thei'e, advising them to despatch 
ambassadors to negotiate the admission of Argos among the allies of Ath' 
ens. A joint embassy was accordingly sent from Argos, Elis, and Man- 
tinea. The Lacedtemonians endeavored to defeat this negotiation by 
sending three of their most popular citizens to Athens, to make another 
attempt to procure the cession of Pylos. Their reception was so favora- 
ble, that Alcibiades, alarmed at the prospect of their success, resorted to 
a trick in order to defeat it. He called upon the Lacedaemonian envoys, 
one of whom happened to be his personal friend ; and, pretending to have 
resumed his predilections for Sparta, he advised them not to tell the assem- 
bly that they were furnished with full powers, as in that case the people 
would bully them into extravagant concessions, but rather to say that they 
were merely come to discuss and report ; promising, if they did so, to speak 
in their favor, and induce the assembly to grant the restitution of Pylos, 
to which he himself had hitherto been the chief obstacle. Accordingly, on 
the next day, when the ambassadors were introduced into the assembly, 
Alcibiades, assuming his blandest tone and most winning smile, asked them 
on what footing they came, and what were their powers ? In reply to 
these questions, the ambassadors, who only a day or two before had told 
Nicias and the Senate that they were come as plenipotentiaries, now pub- 
licly declared, in the face of the assembly, that they were not authorized to 
conclude, but only to negotiate and discuss. At this announcement, those 



304 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXIX 

who had heard their previous declaration could scarcely believe their ears. 
A universal burst of indignation broke forth at this exhibition of Spartan 
duplicity ; whilst, to wind up the scene, Alcibiades, affecting to be more 
surprised than any, distinguished himself by being the loudest and bitterest 
in his invectives against the perfidy of the Lacedeemonians. Taking ad- 
vantage of the moment, he proposed that the Argive ambassadors should 
be called in, and an alliance instantly concluded with Argos. The motion, 
however, was defeated for the present by an earthquake which occurred, 
and which caused the assembly to be adjourned. This delay procured 
Nicias the opportunity of proceeding to Sparta, and making another at- 
tempt at adjustment. It proved, however, unsuccessful. Nicias was 
obhged to make the mortifying confession of his failure before the assembly ; 
and Alcibiades thereupon procured the completion of a treaty of alliance 
for one hundred years with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea. This took place in 
the year 420 b. c. Thus were the Grecian states involved in a complica- 
tion of separate, and often apparently opposite alliances. It was evident 
that allies so heterogeneous could not long hold together ; nevertheless, 
nominally at least, peace was at first observed. 

§ 5. In the July which followed the treaty with Argos, the Olympic 
games, which recurred every fourth year, were to be celebrated. The 
Athenians had been shut out by the war from the two previous celebra- 
tions ; but now Elean heralds came with the usual forms to invite their 
attendance. Curiosity was excited throughout Greece to see what figure 
Athens would make at this great Pan-Hellenic festival. War, it was 
surmised, must have exhausted her resources, and W'Ould thus prevent her 
^rom appearing with becoming splendor. But from this reproach she 
was rescued by the wealth and vanity, if not by the patriotism, of Alci- 
biades. By his care, the Athenian deputies exhibited the richest display 
>f golden ewers, censers, and other plate, to be used in the public sacrifice 
and procession ; whilst for the games he entered in his own name no fewer 
than the unheard of number of seven four-horsed chariots, of which one 
gained the first, and another the second prize. Alcibiades was consequently 
twice crowned with the olive, and twice proclaimed victor by the herald. 
In his private tent his victory was celebrated by a magnificent banquet. 
It is not improbable, however, that on this occasion he was assisted by the 
Athenian allies ; for the whole Ionic race was interested in appearing with 
due honor at this grand national festival. 

§ 6. The growing ambition and success of Alcibiades prompted him to 
carry his schemes against Sparta into the very heart of Peloponnesus, 
without, however, openly violating the peace. For the first time an Athe- 
nian general was beheld traversing the peninsula, and busying himself with 
the domestic affairs of several of its states. He persuaded the citizens ol 
Patrae in Achaia to ally themselves with Athens ; and proceeded with the 
few troops he had brought with him to assist the Argives in an attack upon 



B. C. 418.] BATTLE OF MANTINEA. 305 

Epidaurus, a city conveniently situated for facilitating the intercourse be- 
tween Argos and Athens. The territory of Epidaurus was ravaged ; and 
late in the autumn, the Lacedaemonians sent three hundred men by sea to 
the assistance of that city ; but nothing decisive took place. 

§ 7. The Lacedaemonians now found it necessary to act with more 
vigor; and accordingly, in b. c. 418, they assembled a very large army, 
consisting both of their allies and of their own troops, and invaded the terri- 
tory of Argos in three divisions. Their operations were judiciously planned. 
The Spartan king, Agis, succeeded in surrounding the Argive army in such 
a manner that he might easily have cut it to pieces ; but at the moment 
when an engagement was on the point of commencing, two of the Argive 
leaders proceeded to Agis, and, by undertaking to procure a satisfactory 
alliance between Argos and Sparta, induced him to grant a truce of four 
months. Shortly after this truce had been concluded the Athenians came 
to the assistance of the Argives with a force of one thousand hoplites and 
four hundred cavalry. They were accompanied by Alcibiades, who seems, 
however, to have come in a civil capacity. He now persuaded the Ar- 
gives to march with these troops and other allies, against the town of Orchom- 
enos in Arcadia. Having reduced Orchomenos, they proceeded against 
Tegea, hoping to become masters of it through the treachery of a party 
among the citizens. These proceedings, however, roused the Lacedaemoni 
ans, who entered the territory of Mantmea with a large force. Agis, who 
had incurred the just indignation of his countrymen by the improvident 
truce before mentioned, was nevertheless intrusted with the command of this 
army ; but only in consideration of his having promised to wipe out his 
former disgrace by performing some great exploit. He marched into the 
territory of Mantinea, and took up a, position near the Heracleum, or tem- 
ple of Hercules, whence he laid waste the surrounding country. The 
Argives and their allies marched forth from Mantinea, and, posting them- 
selves on very rugged and advantageous ground, offered the Lacedaemoni- 
ans battle. Anxious to retrieve his honor, Agis was hastening to attack 
them even at this disadvantage, and had already arrived within javelin- 
throw, when an aged warrior exclaimed that he was now about " to heal 
one mischief by another." Struck by this remark, Agis drew off his men, 
and, with the view of enticing the Argives from their position, commenced 
a retrograde march over the plain ; intending also to block up a water- 
course situated at some distance, and annoy the Mantineans by flooding 
their lands. Finding, however, this project to be impracticable, he re- 
turned upon his steps the following day, when his columns suddenly found 
themselves in presence of the enemy, drawn up in order of battle upon 
the plain. But though taken somewhat by surprise, the admirable disci- 
pline of the Lacedaemonians, insured by a continuous subordination of 
officers, as well as by constant drill, enabled Agis to form liis line speedily 
and without confusion in the face of the enemy. Listead of charging be- 
39 



306 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXIX. 

fore his troops were formed, the Argive generals were wasting the time 
in haranguing their men. The Spartans, who were soldiers by profession, 
needed no such encouragement, and trusted rather to discipline and valor 
than to fine speeches. Instead of these, the inspiriting war-song resounded 
through their ranks ; whilst the slow and steady regularity of their march 
was governed by the musical time of their pipers. Their opponents, on 
the contrary, came rushing on at a furious pace. From the natural ten- 
dency of Greek armies to advance somewhat towards the right, in order to 
keep their left or shielded side as much as possible towards the enemy, 
the left wing of Agis was outflanked by the right of the allies, in which 
fought a chosen body of one thousand Argive hoplites, formed of the 
flower and aristocracy of the city, and maintained and drilled at the public 
expense. On this side the Lacedaemonians were routed ; but Agis, never- 
theless, pushed on with his centre and right, and gained a complete 
victory. The loss of the allies was computed at eleven hundred, among 
whom were two hundred Athenians and both their generals. Laches and 
Nicostratus. Of the Lacedgemonians about three hundred were slain. 
This battle, called the battle of Mantinea, which was fought in June, 
418 B. c, had great effect in restoring the somewhat tarnished lustre of 
the Spartan arms. From the renown of the nations engaged in it, though 
not in point of numbers, it was a more important battle even than that of 
Dehum. 

§ 8. This defeat strengthened the oligarchical party at Argos, which 
now entered into a conspiracy to bring about an alliance with Sparta. To 
assist their views, the Lacedaemonians marched in great force to Tegea, 
and offered Argos the alternative of an alliance or war ; and in spite of all 
the efforts of Alcibiades to counteract it, a treaty was eventually concluded 
between the two states. This was followed by a revolution at Argos. 
The democratical leaders were slain, and an oligarchical government 
established by means of their thousand chosen hoplites. But the oligarchs 
abused their power, and the brutal tyranny of Bryas, the commander of the 
chosen Thousand, produced a counter-revolution. A bride of the humbler 
class, whom he had ravished from the very midst of a wedding procession, 
and carried to his house, put out the eyes of the tyrant during the night 
with the pin of her brooch, and having thus effected her escape, roused by 
her tale of woe the indignation of the people. The latter, taking advan- 
tage of the Lacedaemonians being engaged in the festival of the Gymno- 
|)8edia, rose against the aristocrats, obtained possession of the city, and 
tenewed the alliance with Athens. An attempt to construct long walls 
from Argos to the sea, a distance of four or five miles, was defeated by the 
Lacedaemonians ; but in the spring of B. c. 416 Alcibiades arrived to sup- 
port the Argive democracy with an Athenian armament and twenty 
triremes. Nevertheless, the peace between Sparta and Athens continued 
:to be nominally observed, although the garrison of Pylos were committing 



B.C. 418.] AFFAIRS OF THE SICILIAN GREEKS. 307 

ravages in Laconia, and the Lacedaemonians, by way of reprisal, infested 
the Athenian commerce with their privateers. 

§ 9. It was in the same year that the Athenians attacked and conquered 
Melos, which island and Thera were the only islands in the JEgean not 
subject to the Athenian supremacy. Their armament consisted of thirty- 
eight triremes and a considerable force of hoplites. The Melians having 
rejected all the Athenian overtures for a voluntary submission, their 
capital was blockaded by sea and land, and after a siege of some months 
surrendered. On the proposal, as it appears, of Alcibiades, all the adult 
males were put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, and 
the island colonized afresh by five hundred Athenians. This horrible pro- 
ceeding was the more indefensible, as the Athenians, having attacked the 
Melians in full peace, could not pretend that they were justified by the 
custom of war in slaying the prisoners. It was the crowning act of inso- 
lence and cruelty displayed during their empire, which from this period 
began rapidly to decline. 

§ 10. The event destined to produce that catastrophe — the intervention 
of the Athenians in the affairs of Sicily — was already in progress. The 
feuds of race had been kindled in that island, as in the rest of Greece, by 
the Peloponnesian war. Eleven or twelve years before the period of 
which we are now speaking, the Dorian cities of Sicily (with the exception 
of Camarina), together with the Locrians of Italy, had, under the headship 
of Syracuse, joined the Peloponnesian confederacy, and declared war 
against Leontini, Camarina, and their ally, the city of Rhegium in 
Italy. 

In the year 427 b. c, the Leontines sent an embassy to Athens, to 
crave the assistance of the Athenians. At the head of it was the rhetori- 
cian, Gorgias, the novelty of whose brilliant eloquence took the Athenians 
by surprise, and is said to have chiefly contributed to the success of the 
apphcation. However that may be, an Athenian squadron of twenty ships 
was despatched to the assistance of the Leontines, and also with a view to 
ascertain the possibility of reducing all Sicily, of whose size the Athenians 
seem to have had very vague and imperfect notions, to the obedience of 
Athens. A subsequent expedition in 425 b. c., consisting of forty tri- 
remes, under the command of Eurymedon and Sophocles, has been already 
mentioned.* The selfish and ambitious designs of Athens had however 
become so evident, that in the spring of the following year a congress of 
the SiciUan cities met at Gela ; where the Syracusan, Hermocrates, in an 
able and patriotic speech, succeeded in persuading them to lay aside their 
dissensions, and to unite in defeating the schemes of Athens. The Athe- 
nians were so disappointed at this failure, that when Eurymedon and his 
colleagues, Sophocles and Pythodorus, returned, they were indicted and 

* See above, p. 288. 



308 HISTOEY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXIX. 

convicted of having taken bribes to accede to the peace. Eurymedon 
was sentenced to pay a fine, and his fellow-commanders were banished. 

§ 11. In the year 422 b. c, another application for assistance was made 
to the Athenians by the Leontine democracy, who had been expelled by 
the aristocrats ; but the Athenians, then smarting under their recent 
losses, and having just concluded a truce with Sparta, could not be per- 
suaded to grant any effectual succor. In the spring of 41 6 b. c, howevei", 
an embassy from the Sicilian town of Egesta was more successful. A 
quarrel had broken out between Egesta and Selinus, both of which cities 
were seated near the western extremity of Sicily; and Selinus, having 
obtained the aid of Syracuse, was pressing very hard upon the Egestfeans. 
The latter apj)ealed to the interests of the Athenians rather than to their 
sympathies. They represented how great a blow it would be to Athens if 
the Dorians became predominant in Sicily, and joined the Peloponnesian 
confederacy ; and they undertook, if the Athenians would send an arma- 
ment to their assistance, to provide the necessary funds for the prosecu- 
tion of the war. Their appKcation was supported by the Leontine exiles 
still resident at Athens. But their most powerful advocate was Alci- 
biades, whose ambitious views are said to have extended even to the con- 
quest of Carthage. Li these distant expeditions he beheld a means of 
gratifying his passion for adventure and glory, and at the same time of 
retrieving his fortune, which had been dilapidated by his profligate expen- 
diture. The quieter and more prudent Nicias and his party threw their 
weight into the opposite scale ; and at their instance it was resolved, 
before an expedition was undertaken, to ascertain whether the Egesteeans 
were really able to perform the promises they had made. For this pur- 
pose commissioners were despatched to Egesta, whom, however, th© 
cunning Egestteans completely deceived. In the splendid temple of 
Aphrodite on Mount Eryx, a magnificent display of offerings was set out, 
consisting of vessels which the Egestseans passed off for solid gold, though 
only silver gilt. In the private houses, where they were invited to ban- 
quet after banquet, the Athenian envoys were astonished at the profusion 
of plate under which the sideboards groaned, but which was shly trans- 
ferred for the occasion from one house to another. Sixty talents of silvet, 
placed in their hands as earnest-money, completed the delusion ; and the 
commissioners, who were, perhaps, not unwilling to be deceived, returned 
to Athens with magnificent accounts of the wealth of Egesta. 

§ 12. Dazzled by the idea of so splendid an enterprise, the means for 
accomplishing which seemed ready provided, the Athenian assembly at 
once decided on despatching a fleet of sixty triremes, under Nicias, Alci- 
biades, and Lamachus, with the design of assisting Egesta, of restoring the 
Leontine democracy, and lastly of establishing the influence of Athens 
throughout Sicily, by whatever means might be found practicable. Nicias, 
though named as one of the commanders of the expedition, entirely disap- 



B. C. 415.] MUTILATION OF THE HERM^. 309 

proved of it, and denounced it in the assembly as springing from the vain- 
glory and ambition of Alcibiades. The latter repelled these not unmerited 
attacks in a violent speech, and persuaded the assembly to ratify their 
former decision. Another attempt of Nicias to deter the Athenians from 
the enterprise by representing the enormous force which it would requu-e, 
had an effect exactly contrary to what he had intended ; for the assembly, 
taking him at his word, decreed a fleet of one hundi'ed instead of sixty 
triremes, together with a proportionate increase m the land forces. 

§ 13. For the next three months the preparations for the undertaking 
were pressed on with the greatest ardor. Young and old, rich and poor, 
all vied with one another to obtain a share in the expedition. Oracles 
and prophecies predicting success were circulated through the city, and 
greedily listened to. So great was the throng of volunteers, that the care 
of the generals was restricted to the task of selection. The trierarchs 
contended which should produce his vessel, not only in the most efficient, 
but in the most ornamental, state of equipment. Five years of comparative 
peace had accumulated a fresh supply both of men and money ; and the 
merchants of Athens embarked in the enterprise as in a trading expedi- 
tion. It was only a few of the wisest heads that escaped the general fever 
of excitement. Meton, the astronomer, and Socrates, the philosopher, are 
said not to have shared in the universal enthusiasm ; the latter warned, 
perhaps, by that familiar demon to whose whispered wisdom his ears were 
ever open. 

§ 14. And now the magnificent armament is on the point of saiUng. 
The brilliant city is alive with hope, and pride, and expectation, when a 
sudden and mysterious event converts all these exulting feelings into 
gloomy foreboding. 

At every door in Athens, at the corners of streets, in the market-place, 
before temples, gymnasia, and other pubhc places, stood Hermse, or 
statues of the god Hermes, consisting of a bust of that deity surmounting a 
quadrangular pillar of marble about the height of the human figure. 
When the Athenians rose one morning towards the end of May, 415 b. c, 
it was found that all these figures had been mutilated during the night, 
and reduced by unknown hands to a shapeless mass. We may partly 
reaUze the feelings excited by this occurrence, by picturing to ourselves 
some Roman Catholic town, in which all the statues of the Virgin should 
have been suddenly defaced. But the act inspired political, as well as 
religious, alarm. It seemed to indicate a wide-spread conspiracy, for so 
sudden and general a mutilation must have been the work of many hands. 
Athens, like other Grecian states, abounded with clubs, which, like our 
societies of freemasons, offered facilities for secret and extensive combina- 
tions. This will probably afford the most natural explanation of the fear 
which now pervaded Athens ; for the sacrilege might only be a preUmi- 
nary attempt of some powerful citizen to seize the despotism, and suspi- 



310 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXIX. 

cion pointed its finger at Alcibiades. Active measures were taken and 
large rewards offered for the discovery of the perpetrators. A public 
board was appointed to examine witnesses, which did not, indeed, succeed 
in eliciting any facts bearing on the actual subject of inquiry, but which 
obtained evidence respecting similar acts of impiety committed at previous 
times in drunken frolics. In these Alcibiades himself was implicated ; and 
though the fleet was on the very eve of departure, Pythonicus rose in 
the assembly and accused him of having profaned the Eleusinian mys- 
teries by giving a representation of them in a private house, producing in 
evidence the testimony of a slave. Pythonicus also charged him with 
being privy to the mutilation of the Herraas, but without bringing forward 
the slightest proof. Alcibiades denied the accusation, and implored the 
people to have it investigated at once. His enemies, however, had suffi- 
cient influence to get the inquiry postponed till his return ; thus keeping 
the charge hanging over his head, and gaining time to poison the public 
mind against him. 

§ 15. The day had arrived for the sailing of the fleet. Corey ra was 
appointed for the rendezvous of the allies; but even the departure of the 
Athenian armament was a spectacle imposing in the extreme. Of the 
hundred triremes, sixty were equipped as men-of-war, the rest as trans- 
ports. Fifteen hundred chosen Athenian hoplites, seven hundred of the 
class of Thetes to act as marines, together with five hundred Argive and 
two hundred and fifty Mantinean hoplites, marched at daybreak to embark 
at the PeirjBus, accompanied by nearly the whole of the population. As 
the ships were preparing to slip their moorings, the sound of the trumpet 
enjoined silence, and the voice of the herald, accompanied by that of the 
people, was lifted up in prayer. Then followed the chanting of the paean, 
whilst the officers on the decks of their respective vessels made libations 
of wine to the gods from gold and silver goblets. At length, at a given 
signal, the whole fleet started from Peirseus, each crew striving, as in a 
nautical contest, to arrive first at the island of -^gina. The people who 
lined the beach watched the vessels till they were out of sight, and then 
returned to the city with heavy hearts and ominous misgivings. 



B. C. 415.] 



THE SICILIAX EXPEDITION. 



311 




Bast of Alcibiades. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



PELOPONNESIAN "WAR CONTINUED. THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION. 

1. Armament mustered at Corcyra. ^ 2. Its Reception in Italy. Proceedings at Syra 
cuse. ^ 3. Plans of the Athenian Generals. § 4. The Advice of Alcibiades adopted 
He gains over Naxos and Catana. ^ 5. Proceedings at Athens respecting the Mutilation 
of the Hermse, and the Profanation of the Mysteries. ^ 6. Alcibiades accused, and 
ordered to return to Athens. § 7. Proceedings of Nicias in Sicily. § 8. Preparations of 
the Sicilians for Defence. § 9. Nicias lays Siege to Syracuse. § 10. He seizes Epipolse 
and constructs a Fort at Syk6. Attempt of the Syracusans against it. § 11. Arrival of 
the Spartan General Gylippus. Change in the Athenian Prospects. ^ 12. Invasion of 
Attica by the Lacedaemonians. They fortify Deceleia. ^ 13. The Syracusans defeat 
the Athenians at Sea. § 14. Demosthenes and Eurymedon arrive in Sicilj^ with Rein- 
forcements. Reverses. The Athenians resolve to retreat. § 15. Naval Engagement in 
the Great Harbor. Victory of the Syracusans. § 16. Its Eflfects. Disastrous Retreat of 
the Athenians. Surrender of Demosthenes. § 17. Surrender of Nicias. Treatment of 
the Prisoners. Death of Nicias and Demosthenes. ^ 18. Their Characters. 



§ 1. The Athenian fleet destined for Sicily was joined at Corcyra by 
the other allies in the month of July, 415 B. c. The whole armament 
when mustered consisted of one hundred and thirty-four triremes and two 
Rhodian penteconters, and had on board five thousand one hundred hop- 
lites, four hundred and eighty bowmen, of whom eighty were Cretans, seven 
hundred Rhodian slingers, and one hundred and twenty Megarian exiles, 
who served as light-armed troops. The fleet was accompaned by no fewer 
than five hundred transports, carrying provisions, warlike stores, and ar- 
tificers, as well as by a great many private trading-vessels. Three fast- 
sailing triremes were sent in advance to ascertain the dispositioii of tiw» 



<iV2 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXX 

Italian and Sicilian towns, and to notify to the Egestaeans the approach of 
assistance. The fleet then made for the lapygian promontory, in three 
divisions, commanded by Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. 

§ 2. Their reception in Italy was far from encouraging. The utmost 
they could obtain was permission to take in water, and even this was re- 
fused by the Tarentines, and by the Epizephyrian Locrians. At Rhegium, 
however, they were allowed to land and to purchase provisions ; but they 
were not permitted to enter the town, and the citizens refused to join or 
assist them. Here, therefore, they awaited the return of the three explor- 
ing vessels. 

Rumors of the intended expedition prevailed at Syracuse, but were 
treated as incredible. Hermocrates, however, was better informed than his 
fellow-citizens. He urged them to summon their alhes and to prepare for 
defence, and even exhorted them to sail at once to the friendly harbor of 
Tarentum, and from thence to offer battle to the Athenian fleet in the 
Ionian Gulf. But the demagogue Athenagoras treated the whole matter 
as a fiction invented to serve the interests of the oligarchical party. At 
last one of the generals put an end to the debate by undertaking to place 
the city in a posture of defence. 

§ 3. Meantime the three vessels which had been sent to Egesta 
returned to Rhegium, with the discouraging news that the accounts 
respecting the wealth of Egesta were entirely fictitious, and that the sum 
of thirty talents was all the assistance that could be hoped for from that 
quarter. A council of war was now held. It appears that the Athenian 
generals had pi'oceeded thus far without having formed any definite plan, 
and each now proposed a different one. Nicias was of opinion, that, since 
no effectual help could be expected from the Egestseans, the objects of the 
expedition should be confined to the narrowest possible limits, and, with 
that view, that they should sail at once against the Selinuntines, obtain 
from them the best terms possible, and then return home. Alcibiades, 
whose hopes of glory and profit would have been ruined by this plan, pro- 
posed to gain as many allies as they could among the Greek cities in 
Sicily, and, having thus ascertained what assistance they could rely upon, 
to attack Syracuse and Selinus. Lamachus was for bolder measures. 
He recommended an immediate attack upon Syracuse, whilst it was yet 
unprepared for defence. The terror of the Syracusans would probably 
cause them to surrender, and the capture of their city would determine the 
conduct of the rest of Sicily ; but if they lingered, negotiated, and did 
nothing, they would first be regarded with indifference and then with 
contempt. 

§ 4. The advice of Lamachus was the most soldierlike, and, though 
seemingly the boldest, would undoubtedly have been the safest and most 
prudent in the end. But neither of his colleagues approved of it, and as 
Lamachus was poor, and possessed no great political interest, he was 



B. C. 415.] ACCUSATION OF ALCIBIADES. 313 

obliged to give way. The counsel of Alcibiades was adopted as a mean 
between the other two. Messana refused his solicitations, but Naxos cor^ 
dially joined the Athenians. Alcibiades tlien sailed southwards with a 
considerable portion of the fleet, and, passing Syracuse, despatched ten 
triremes into the Great Harbor, for the purpose of surveying its docks and 
fortifications. Nothing further was attempted ; but as they sailed back, 
the Athenians obtained possession by surprise of the important city of 
Catana, which was now made the head-quarters of the armament. 

§ 5. An unwelcome message greeted Alcibiades at Catana. After his 
departure from Athens fresh inquiries were instituted respecting the muti- 
lation of the Hermce, and the offer of large rewards brought forward 
additional evidence. The public agitation and anxiety were kept alive by 
the demagogues Peisander and Charicles, two of the commissioners of 
inquiry, who denounced the affair not only as a sacrilege, but also as a 
conspiracy for putting down the democracy and establishing a tyranny. 
Numerous arrests were made, and citizens of the highest character were 
thrown into prison on the testimony of hireling wretches. Terror reigned 
in the city, and the fear of being informed against rose to such a pitch, that 
the convocation of the Senate by the herald M^as a signal to the crowd 
which filled the market-place to disperse. Among the persons arrested 
was Andocides, the orator, who was induced by his fellow-prisoners to 
come forward and state what he knew of the affair. He was a young man 
of rank, and his evidence was implicitly believed, especially as it was con- 
firmed by his slaves, who were put to the torture. Those whom he 
denounced were executed. He saved his own hfe by turning informer, 
but the hatred he incurred was such that he was obliged to leave the city. 
His evidence was most probably false, and the whole affair has ever 
remained involved in mystery. 

§ 6. The execution of the supposed criminals had the effect of tranquil- 
lizing the city respecting the mutilation of the Hermse ; but the profana- 
tion of the Eleusinian mysteries, a rite regarded with the deepest rever- 
ence at Athens, still remained unexpiated. The Eumolpida;, and other 
great families who held hereditary offices in the celebration of the mys- 
teries, looked upon themselves as personally insulted. The public excite- 
ment was increased by the appearance of a Lacedaemonian force on the 
frontier, which, it was suspected, might be connected with some internal 
conspiracy. Both oligarchs and democrats were loud in demanding the 
arrest of Alcibiades ; and Thessalus, the son of Cimon, who belonged to 
the former party, preferred an indictment against him. In pursuance of 
this step the public trireme, called the Salaminia, was despatched to Sicily, 
carrying the decree of the assembly for Alcibiades to come home and take 
his trial, and which met him, as before related, on his arrival at Catana. 
The commander of the Salaminia was, however, instructed not to seize his 
person, but to allow him to sail in his own trireme. Alcibiades availed 
40 



314 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXX 

bimself of this privilege to effect his escape. When the ships arrived at 
Thurii in Italy, he absconded, and contrived to elude the search that was 
made after him. Nevertheless, though absent, he was arraigned at 
Athens, and condemned to death ; his property was confiscated, and the 
Eumolpidae pronounced upon him the curses of the gods. On hearing of 
his sentence Alcibiades is said to have exclaimed, " I will show them that 
I am still alive." 

§ 7. Three months had now been frittered away in Sicily, during which 
the Athenians had done little or nothing, if we except the acquisition of 
Naxos and Catana. The Syracusahs began to look upon them with con- 
tempt. They even meditated an attack upon the Athenians at Catana; 
and Syracusan horsemen rode up and insulted them in their camp. Nicias 
was thus absolutely shamed into undertaking something, and resolved to 
make an attempt upon Syracuse. By a false message that the Catana^ans 
were ready to assist in expelling the Athenians, he induced the Syracusans 
to proceed thither in great force, and he availed himself of their absence 
to sail with his whole fleet into the Great Harbor of Syracuse, where he 
landed near the mouth of the Anapus, in the neighborhood of the temple 
of the Olympian Zeus. Here he intrenched himself in a strong position, 
on the right bank of the Anapus, breaking down the bridge over the river. 
The Syracusans, when they found that they had been deceived at Catana, 
marched back and offered Nicias battle in his new position. The latter 
accepted it, and gained the victory ; after which he retired to Catana, and 
subsequently to Naxos into winter-quarters. He then sent messages to 
Athens for fresh supplies of cavah-y and money, and to his Sicilian allies 
for reinforcements. 

§ 8. The Syracusans employed the winter in preparations for defence. 
They built a new wall, covering both their inner and outer town to the 
westward (see Plan, G, H, I), and rendering any attempt at circumvalla- 
tion more difficult. They fortified and garrisoned the temple and grove 
of the Olympian Zeus, in the neighborhood of the city. They despatched 
envoys to Corinth and Sparta to solicit assistance, in the latter of which 
towns they found an unexpected advocate. Alcibiades, having crossed from 
Thurii to Cyllene in Peloponnesus, received a special invitation to proceed 
to Sparta. Here he revealed all the plans of Athens, and exhorted the 
Lacedaimonians to frusti-ate them. For this purpose he advised them to 
send an army into Sicily, under the command of a Spartan general, and, 
by way of causing a diversion, to establish a fortified post at Decelea in 
the Attic territories. The Spartans fell in with these views, and resolved 
to send a force to the assistance of Syracuse in the spring, under the com- 
mand of Gylippus. 

§ 9. Nicias, having received a reinforcement of cavalry from Athens, as 
well as three hundred talents in money, recommenced hostilities as soon as 
the season allowed of it, and resolved on besieging Syracuse. That town 



B.C. 414.] DESCRIPTION OF SYRACUSE. 315 

consisted of two parts, the inner and the outer city. The former of these 
— the original settlement — was comprised in the island of Ortygia ; the 
latter, afterwards known by the name of Achradina, covered the high 
ground of the peninsula north of Ortygia, and was completely separate from 
the inner city. The island of Ortygia, to which the modern city is now 
confined, is of an oblong shape, abor.t two miles in circumference, lying 
between the Great Harbor on the west and the Little Harbor on the east, 
and separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The Great Har- 
bor is a splendid bay, about five miles in circumference, the entrance of 
which is protected on the left hand by the promontory Pleramyrium, and 
on the right hand by a projecting cape of the island of Ortygia. The 
little port, also called Laccius, which lay between Ortygia and the outer 
city, was spacious enough to receive a large fleet of ships of war. The 
outer city was surrounded on the north and east by the sea, and by sea- 
walls, which rendered an assault on that side almost impracticable. On 
the land side it was defended by a wall, and partly also by the nature of 
the ground, which in some parts was very steep. The low ground between 
the outer city and Ortygia seems not to have been included in the fortifi- 
cations of either, but was employed partly as a burial-ground, partly for 
games and religious processions. "West and northwest of the wall of the 
outer city stood two unfortified suburbs, which were at a later time included 
within the walls of Syracuse under the names of Tyche and Neapolis. 
At the time of which we are speaking, the latter was called Temenites, 
from having within it the statue and consecrated ground of Apollo Teme- 
nites. Between these two suburbs the ground rose in a gentle acclivity to 
the summit of the ranges of hills called Epipolse. 

§ 10. It was from the high ground of Ei)ipoliB that Syracuse was most 
exposed to attack. The Syracusan generals had hitherto neglected this 
important position, and were on the point of occupying it, when they were 
anticipated by Nicias. Landing at Leon, a place upon the Bay of Thapsus, 
at the distance of only six or seven stadia from Epipolaj, the Athenian 
troops reached the summit just as the Syracusans were marching towards 
the heights. They made, however, an attempt to dislodge the Athenians, 
which was repulsed ; and on the -following morning, Nicias and Lamachug 
marched their troops down the ridge and offered battle, which was declined 
by the Syracusans. On the summit of Epipolae, Nicias constructed a fort 
called Labdalum ; and then, coming farther down the hill towards Syra- 
cuse, he built another fort of a circular form and of considerable size at 
a place called Syke. From the latter point ho commenced his line of 
circumvallation, one wall extending southwards from Syke to the Great 
Harbor, and the other wall running northwards from the same fortress 
to the outer sea at Trogilus. (See Plan, K, L, M.) While the Athenians 
were busy upon their lines towards the north, the Syracusans ran a counter- 
wall from their own lines up the slope of the Epipolje (see Plan, N, 0), 



816 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXX. 



but after a sharp conflict it was taken by the Athenians and destroyed 
Not disheartened by this failure, the Syracusans commenced a second 
counter-work, and succeeded in constructing a ditcli and stockade, which 
extended again from their own hues across the marsh to the Anapus. (See 
Plan, P, Q.) From this new position they were also dislodged by the 



BAY or 

THAPSUS 




Plan of Syracuse. (From Grote's Greece.) 

A, B, C, D. Wall of the Outer City of Syracuse at the time of the arrival of Nicias in Sicflj. 
E, F. Wall of Ortygia, or the Inner City of Syracuse, at the same time. 
G, H, I. Additional fortification built by the Syracusans in the winter of 415 - 414 B. 0. 

K. Athenian fortification at Syke. 
K, L, M Southern portion of the Athenian circumvallation froni Syke to the Great Harbor. 
N, 0. First counter-work erected by the Syracusans. 
P, Q. Second counter-worli constructed by the Syracusans. 

K, R. Intended, but unfinished, circumvallation of the Athenians from the northern side d 
Syke to the outer seaat Trogilus. 
S, T, XJ. Third Syracusan counter-wall. 

V. Outer fort constructed by Gylippus. 
V, W, T. Wall of junction between this outer fort and tlie third Syracusan counter-work. 



Athenians ; but in the assault, which was led by Lamachus, this gallant 
officer was slain. At the same time the Athenian fleet entered the Great 
Harbor, where it was henceforth permanently established. 

The Syracusans offered no further opposition to the progress of the 
circumvallation, which was at length completed towards the south. It 
consisted of two distinct walls, with a space between them, which was 
perhaps partly roofed over, in order to afford shelter for the troops. The 



B. C. 414.] ARRIVAL OF GYLIPPUS. 317 

nortliern wall towards Trogilus was never completed, and througli the pas 
sage thus left open, the besieged continued to obtain pi'ovisions. 

Nicias, who, by the death of Lamachus, had become sole commander, 
seemed now on the point of succeeding. The Syracusans were so sensible 
of their inferiority in the field, that they no longer ventured to show them- 
selves outside the walls. They began to contemplate surrender, and even 
sent messages to Nicias to treat of the terms. This caused the Athenian 
commander to indulge in a false confidence of success, and consequent 
apathy ; and the army having lost the active and energetic Lamachus, 
operations were no longer carried on with the requisite activity. 

§ 11. It was in this state of affairs that the Spartan commander Gylip- 
pus passed over into Italy with a little squadron of four ships, two La- 
cedtemoniau and two Corinthian, with the view merely of preserving 
the Greek cities in that country, supposing that Syracuse, and, with her, 
the other Greek cities in Sicily, were irretrievably lost. As he proceeded 
southwards along the Italian coast, a violent storm drove him into Taren- 
tum. Nicias, though informed of his arrival, regarded his little squadron 
with contempt, and took no measures to interrupt his progress. From the 
Epizephyrian Locrians Gylippus learned, to his great surprise and satisfac- 
tion, that the Athenian wall of circumvaUation at Syracuse had not yet 
been completed on the northern side. He now sailed through the Straits 
of Messana, which were left completely unguarded, and arrived safely 
at Himera on the north coast of Sicily. Here he announced himself 
as the forerunner of larger succors, and began to levy an army, which 
the magic of the Spartan name soon enabled him to effect; and in 
a few days he was in a condition to march towards Syracuse with 
about three thousand men. His approach had been already announced 
by Gongylus, a Corinthian, who had been sent forwards from the 
Corinthian fleet then assembled at Leucas. The Syracusans now 
dismissed all thoughts of surrender, and went out boldly to meet Gy- 
lippus, who marched into Syracuse over the heights of Epipolee, which 
the supineness of Nicias had left unguarded. Upon arriving in the city, 
Gylippus sent a message to the Athenians allowing them a five days' 
truce to collect their effects and evacuate the island. Nicias returned no 
answer to this insulting proposal ; but the operations of Gylippus soon 
showed that the tide of affairs was really turned. His first exploit was to 
capture the Athenian fort at Labalum, which made him master of Epi- 
polte. He next commenced constructing a counter-wall to intersect the 
Athenian lines on the northern side. This third counter-work of the 
Syracusans extended from their city wall to the northern cliff of Epipolae, 
and was brought to a successful completion. (See Plan, S, U.) Gylip- 
pus subsequently built a fort (V) upon Epipolte ; and from this fort car- 
ried another wall which joined at right angles the counter-work already 
erected. (See Plan, V, W, U.) This turn of affairs induced those Sicilian 



318 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXX. 

cities, wliich had hitherto hesitated, to embrace the side of Syracuse. 
Gylippus was also reinforced by the arrival of thirty triremes from 
Corinth, Leucas, and Ambracia. Nicias now felt that the attempt to 
blockade Syracuse with his present force was hopeless. He therefore 
resolved to occupy the headland of Plemmyrium, the southernmost point 
of the entrance to the Great Harbor, which would be a convenient station 
for watching the enemy, as well as for facilitating the introduction of sup- 
phes. Here he accordingly erected three forts and formed a naval station. 
Some slight affairs occurred, in which the balance of advantage was in 
favor of the Syracusans. By their change of station the Athenians were 
now a besieged rather than a besieging force. Their triremes were be- 
coming leaky, and their soldiers and sailors were constantly deserting. 
Nicias himself had fallen into a bad state of health ; and in this discour- 
aging posture of affairs he wrote to Athens requesting to be recalled, and 
insisting strongly on the necessity of sending reinforcements. 

§ 12. The Athenians refused to recall Nicias, but they determined on 
sending a large reinforcement to Sicily, under the joint command of De- 
mosthenes and Eurymedon. The news of these fresh and extensive prep- 
arations incited the LacedEsmonians to more vigorous action. The peace, 
if such it can be called, had been violated in the year 414 b. c, when the 
Lacedaemonians invaded and ravaged the Argive territories, whilst the 
Athenians assisted the Argives with a fleet of thirty triremes, and laid 
waste Epidaurus, and some neighboring places. But in the spring of 413 
B. c. , the Lacedaemonians, under King Agis, invaded Attica itself, and, 
following the advice of Alcibiades, established themselves permanently at 
Decelea, a place situated on the ridge of Mount Fames, about fourteen 
miles north of Athens, and commanding the Athenian plain. The city was 
thus placed in a state of siege. Scarcity began to be felt within the walls ; 
the revenues were falling off, whilst, on the other hand, expenses were in- 
creasing. Yet even under these circumstances the Athenians had no 
thoughts of abandoning their ambitious enterprises. It was resolved not 
only to send reinforcements to Sicily, but also to insult the coasts of 
Laconia. For this purpose Charicles was sent thither with a fleet of thirty 
triremes ; and being assisted by Demosthenes with the armament which 
he was conducting to Sicily, Charicles succeeded in establishing himself 
on the coast of Laconia, at a spot opposite to the island of Cythera, in a 
manner somewhat similar to the Athenian fort at Fylos. 

§ 13. Meanwhile in Sicily the Syracusans had gained such confidence 
that they even ventured on a naval engagement with the Athenians. 
A battle was fought at the mouth of the Great Harbor, in which the 
Athenians were, indeed, victorious ; but when they sailed back to their 
station at Plemmyrium, they found that Gylippus had taken advantage of 
this diversion to attack and take their forts there, and that a great quan- 
tity of stores and provisions had fallen into his hands. Moreover, the 



B. C. 413.] THE ATHENIAN FLEET DEFEATED. 319 

Syracusans were not discouraged by their defeat from venturing on an- 
other naval engagement. They had greatly improved the construction of 
their vessels by strengthening their bows, and had learnt how to meet or 
evade the nautical manoeuvres of the Athenians, which were also con- 
siderably impeded by the narrow limits of the Great Harbor, now the 
scene of conflict. The second battle lasted two days, and ended in the 
defeat of the Athenians, who were now obliged to haul up their ships in 
the innermost part of the Great Harbor, under the Hnes of their fortified 
camp. A still more serious disaster than the loss of the battle was the 
loss of their naval reputation. It was evident that the Athenians had 
ceased to be invincible on the sea; and the Syracusans no longer de- 
spaired of overcommg them on their own element. 

§ 14. Such was the state of affairs when, to the astonishment of the 
Syracusans, a fresh Athenian fleet of seventy-five triremes, under Demos- 
thenes and Eurymedon, entered the Great Harbor with all the pomp 
and circumstance of war. It had on board a force of five thousand 
hoplites, of whom about a quarter were Athenians, and a great number 
of light-armed troops. The active and enterprising character of Demos- 
thenes led him to adopt more vigorous, measures than those which had 
been hitherto pursued. He saw at once that whilst Epipolee remained in the 
possession of the Syracusans there was no hope of taking their city, and he 
therefore directed all his efforts to the recapture of that position. But all 
his attem[)ts were unavailing. He was defeated, not only in an open 
assault upon the Syracusan wall, but in a nocturnal attempt to carry it by 
suqjrise. These reverses were aggravated by the breaking out of sick- 
ness among the troops. Demosthenes now proposed to return home and 
assist in expelling the LacedEemonians from Attica, instead of pursuing an 
enterprise which seemed to be hopeless. But Nicias, who feared to 
return to Athens with the stigma of failure, refused to give his consent to 
this step. Demosthenes then urged Nicias at least to sail immediately 
out of the Great Hai'bor, and take up their position either at Thapsus or 
Catana, where they could obtain abundant supplies of provisions, and 
would have an open sea for the manoeuvres of their fleet. But even to 
this proposal Nicias would not consent ; and the army and navy remained 
in their former position. Soon afterwai'ds, however, Gylippus received 
such large reinforcements, that Nicias found it necessary to adopt the 
advice of his colleague. Preparations were secretly made for their de- 
parture ; the enemy appear to have had no suspicion of their intention, 
and they were on the point of quittiaig their ill-fated quarters on the 
following morning, when on the very night before (27 Aug. 413 b. c) an 
eclipse of the moon took place. The soothsayers who were consulted said 
that the army must wait thrice nine days, a full circle of the moon, before 
it could quit its present position ; and the devout and superstitious Nicias 
forthwith resolved to abide by this decision. 



320 



HISTORY OF GREECE. I Chap. XXX 



Meanwhile the intention of the Athenians became known to the Sjra- 
cusans, who determined to strike a blow before their enemy escaped. 
They accordingly attacked the Athenian station both by sea and land. 
On land the attack of Gylippus was repulsed ; but at sea the Athenian 
fleet was completely defeated, and Eurymedon, who commanded the right 
division, was slain. 

The spirits of the Syracusans rose with their victories, and though they 
would formerly have been content with the mere retreat of the Athenians, 
they now resolved on effecting their utter destruction. With this view 
they blocked up the entrance of the Great Harbor with a line of vessels 
moored across it. All hope seemed now to be cut off from the Athenians, 
unless they could succeed in forcing this line, and thus effecting their 
escape. The Athenian fleet still numbered one hundred and ten tri- 
remes, which Nicias furnished with grappling-ii'ons, in order to bring the 
enemy to close quarters, and then caused a large proportion of his land 
force to embark. Before they set off, Nicias addressed the most earnest 
and touching appeals both to the crews and to the individual commanders 
to fight with bravery, since not only their own fate, but that of Athens 
itseff, depended on the issue of that day's combat. He himself remained 
on shore, where the army was drawn up to witness the conflict. 

§ 15. Never perhaps was a battle fought under circumstances of such 
intense interest, or witnessed by so many spectators vitally concerned in 
the result. The basin of the Great Harbor, about five miles in circum 
ference, in which nearly two hundred ships, each with crews of more than 
two hundred men, were about to engage, was lined with spectators ; whilst 
the walls of Ortygia, overhanging the water, were crowded with old men, 
women, and children, anxious to behold a conflict which was to decide the 
fate of their enemies, if not their own. The surface of the water swarmed 
with Syracusan small craft, many of them manned by youthful volunteers 
of the best families, ready to direct their services wherever they might be 
wanted. The whole scene, except in its terrible reality and the momen- 
tous interests depending on it, resembled on a large scale the naumachiae 
exhibited by the Roman emperors for the amusement of their subjects. 
The Syracusan fleet, consisting of seventy-six triremes, was the first to 
leave the^ shore. A considerable portion was detached to guard the 
barrier at the mouth of the harbor. Hither was directed the first and 
most impetuous attack of the Athenians, who sought to break through the 
narrow opening which had been left for the passage of merchant-vessels. 
Their onset was repulsed, and the battle then became general. The 
shouts of the combatants, and the crash of the iron heads of the vessels as 
they were driven together, resounded over the water, and were answered 
on shore by the cheers or wailings of the spectators, as their friends 
were victorious or vanquished. For a long time the battle was main- 
tained with heroic courage and dubious result. At length, as the Athe- 



B. C. 413] DISASTROUS RETREAT OF THE ATHENIANS. 321 

nian vessels began to yield and make back towards the sbore, a universal 
shriek of horwor and despair arose fi-om the Athenian army, whilst shouts 
of joy and victory were raised from the pursuing vessels, and were echoed 
back from the Syracusans on land. As the Athenian vessels neared the 
shore their crews leaped out, and made for the camp, whilst the boldest 
of the land army rushed forward to protect the ships from being seized 
by the enemy. The Athenians succeeded in saving only sixty ships, or 
about half their fleet. The Syracusan fleet, however, had been reduced 
to fifty ships ; and on the^ same afternoon, Nicias and Demosthenes, as a 
last hope of escape, exhorted their men to make another attempt to break 
the enemy's line, and force their way out of the harbor. But the courage 
of the crews was so completely damped, that they positively refused to 
re-embark. 

§ 16. The Athenian army still numbered forty thousand men ; and as all 
chance of escape by sea was now hopeless, it was resolved to retreat by 
land to some friendly city, and there defend themselves against the attacks 
of the Syracusans. This Hermocrates was determined to prevent. The 
day on which the battle was fought happened to be sacred to Hercules, 
and a festival among the Syracusans. This circumstance, in addition to 
the joy and elation naturally resulting from so great a victory, had thrown 
the city into a state of feasting and intoxication ; and had the Athenians 
taken their departure that night, nobody would have been found to oppose 
them. Hermocrates, therefore, when darkness had set in, sent down some 
men to the Athenian wall, who, pretending to come from the secret corre- 
spondents of Nicias in Syracuse, warned him not to decamp that night, 
as all the roads were beset by the Syracusans. Nicias fell into the snare, 
and thus, by another fatal mistake, really afforded the Syracusans an op- 
portunity for obstructing his retreat. 

It was not till the next day but one after the battle that the Athenian 
army began to move. Never were men in so complete a state of prostra- 
tion. Their vessels were abandoned to the enemy, without an attempt to 
save them. As the soldiers turned to quit that fatal encampment, the sense 
of their own woes was for a moment suspended by the sight of their un- 
buried comrades, who seemed to reproach them with the neglect of a sacred 
duty ; but still more by the wailings and entreaties of the wounded, who 
clung around their knees, and implored not to be abandoned to certain 
destruction. Amid this scene of universal woe and dejection, a fresh and 
unwonted spirit of energy and heroism seemed to be infused into Nicias. 
Though suffering under an incurable complaint, he was everywhere seen 
marshalling his troops, and encouraging them by his exhoi^tations. The 
march was directed towards the territory of the Sicels in the interior of 
the island. The army was formed into a hollow squai'e, with the baggage 
in the middle ; Nicias leading the van, and Demosthenes bringing up the 
rear. Having forced the passage of the river Anapus, they mai'ched on 

41 



322 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXX. 

the first day about five miles to the westward, on the second day about 
half that distance, and encamped on a cultivated plain. From this place 
the road ascended by a sort of ravine over a steep hill called the Acrsean 
cliff, on which the Syracusans had fortified themselves. After spending 
two days in vain attempts to force this position, Mcias and Demosthenes 
resolved during the night to strike off to the left towards the sea. Nicias, 
with the van, succeeded in reaching the coast ; but Demosthenes, who had 
lost his way, was overtaken by the Syracusans at noon on the following 
day, and surrounded in a narrow pass. Many of his troops had disbanded 
during the night march, and many feU in the conflict which now ensued, 
till, being reduced to the number of six thousand, they surrender d, on 
condition of their lives being spared. 

§ 17. Meanwhile Nicias, with the van, had pursued his marcli, and 
crossed the river Erineus. On the following day, however, Gylippus 
overtook him, and, having informed him of the fate of his colleague, sum- 
moned him to surrender. But Nicias was incredulous, and pursued his 
march amidst the harassing attacks of the Syracusans. The attempt to 
cross the river Asinarus decided the fate of his army. The men rushed 
into the water in the greatest disorder, partly to escape the enemy, but 
chiefly from a desire to quench the burning thirst with which they were 
tormented. Hundreds were pressed forwards down the steep banks of the 
river, and were either trodden under foot, or impaled on the spears of 
'those below, or carried away by the stream. Yet others from behind still 
kept pressing on, anxious to partake of the now turbid and bloody water. 
The troops thus became so completely disorganized, that all further resist- 
ance was hopeless, and Nicias surrendered at discretion. 

Out of the forty thousand who started from the camp, only ten thousand 
at the utmost were left at the end of the sixth day's march ; the rest had 
either deserted or been slain. The prisoners were sent to work in the 
stone-quarries of Achradina and EpipoltB. Here they were crowded to- 
gether without any shelter, and with scarcely provisions enough to sustain 
life. The numerous bodies of those who died were left to putrefy where 
they had fallen, till at length the place became such an intolerable centre 
of stench and infection, that, at the end of seventy days, the Syracusans, 
for their own comfort and safety, were obliged to remove the survivors. 
All but the Athenians and the Italian and Sicilian Greeks were sold into 
slavery. "What became of the Athenians we are not informed, but they 
were pi'obably employed as slaves by the richer Syracusans, since the story 
runs that many succeeded in winning the affection and pity of their mas- 
ters by reciting portions of the dramas of Euripides. Nicias and Demos- 
thenes were condemned to death, in spite of all the efforts of Gylippus and 
Hermocrates to save them. The latter contrived to spare them the hu- 
miliation of a public execution, by providing them with the means of com- 
imitting suicide. 



B. C. 413.] NICIAS AND DEMOSTHENES. 323 

§ 1 8. Such was the end of two of the largest and best appointed arma- 
ments that had ever gone forth from Athens. Nicias, as we have seen, 
was from the first opposed to the expedition in which they were employed, 
as pregnant with the most dangerous consequences to Athens ; and though 
it must be admitted that in this respect his views were sound, it cannot at 
the same time be concealed, that his own want of energy, and his incom- 
petence as a general, were the chief causes of the failure of the undertak- 
ing. Possessing much fortitude but little enterprise, respectable in private 
life, punctual in the performance of his religious duties, not deficient in a 
certain kind of political wisdom, which, however, derived its color rather 
from timidity and over-caution than from that happy mixture of boldness 
and prudence which characterizes the true statesman, Nicias had by these 
qualities obtained far more than his just share of political reputation and 
influence, and had thus been named to the command of an expedition for 
which he was quahfied neither by military skill nor by that enthusiasm 
and confidence of success which it so peculiarly demanded. His mistakes 
involved the fall of Demosthenes, an officer of far greater resolution and 
ability than himself, and who, had his counsels been followed, would in all 
probability have conducted the enterprise to a safe termination, though 
there was no longer room to hope for success. The career of Demosthenes 
marks him as one of the first generals of the age, but unfortimately he 
held only a subordinate rank in Sicily. The Athenians became sensible 
when too late of the difference between the two commanders. On the 
pillar erected to the memory of the warriors who fell in Sicily, the name 
of Demosthenes found a place, whilst that of Nicias was omitted. 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXL 





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street of the Tripods at Athens, from a bas-relief. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

FBOM THE END OF THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION TO THE OVERTHROW 
OF THE POUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS. 

} 1. Consternation and Hardships at Athens. \ 2. Pleasures for Defence. § 3. Revolt of 
Chios, Erythrse, and ClazomenEe. \ 4. Spread of the Revolt. Defection of Teos, Les- 
bos, and Miletus. Revolution at Samos, which becomes the Head-quarters of the Athe 
nian Fleet. §5. Recovery of Lesbos by the Athenians. Dissatisfaction of the Lacedagmo 
nians with Tissaphemes. § 6. Schemes of Alcibiades. § 7. He proposes a League be- 
tween the Athenians and Persians, and the Establishment of an Oligarchy at Athens. § 8. 
Agitation for an Oligarchy at Athens. § 9. Conference of Peisander with Alcibiades. 
Artifices of the Latter. Fresh Treaty between Tissaphernes and the Lacedjemonians. 
\ 10. Progress of the Oligarchical Conspiracy at Athens and Samos. \ 11. Establishment 
of the Four Hundred § 12. Their Proceedings. \ 13. Proceedings at Samos. Alcibi- 
ades joins the Democracy there. § 14. The Athenian Envoys at Samos. § 15. Dissen- 
sions among the Four Hundred. They negotiate with Sparta. § 16. Counter Revolution 
at Athens. Defeat of the Athenian Fleet and Capture of Euboea by the Lacedaemonians. 
4 17. The Four Hundred deposed and Democracy re-established at Athens 



§ 1. The first intelligence of the destruction of the Sicilian armament 
is said to have been communicated by a stranger, in a barber's shop in the 
Peirseus. Big with the eventful news, the unfortunate barber hastened 
up to Athens to communicate it to the archons and the public ; but he was 
treated as a talebearer . and impostor ; and being unable to corroborate 
liis story, in consequence of the disappearance of his informant, he was 
put to the torture. The tidings were, however, soon confirmed by the 
arrival of fugitives who had managed to escape from the disastrous scene. 
Athens was now filled with afliiction and dismay. To private grief for 
the loss of friends was added despair of the public safety. There seemed 
to be no means of preventing the city from falling into the hands of the 



B. C. 413.] DISMAY OF THE ATHENIANS. 323 

Lacedtemonians. The popular fury vented itself in abusing the orators 
who had recommended the expedition, and the soothsayers who had fore- 
told its success. 

The affairs of the Athenians wore indeed a most threatening aspect. 
The Lacedaemonian post at Decelea was a constant source of annoyance. 
1^0 part of Attica escaped the forays which were made from thence. All 
the cattle were desti'oyed, and the most valuable slaves began to desert in 
great numbers to the enemy. Athens was almost m a state of siege. 
The fatigue of guarding the large extent of wall became very onerous on 
the reduced number of citizens. The knights or horsemen were on con- 
stant duty in order to repress the enemy's marauders ; but their horses 
were soon lamed and rendered inefficient by the hard and stony nature of 
the soil. But what chiefly excited the despondency of the Athenians was 
the visible decUne of theu* naval superiority. An engagement with the 
Corinthian fleet near Naupactus, in the summer of 413 B. c, had ended 
with neither side gaining the advantage, though the forces were nearly 
equal ; but to the Athenians the moral effects were equivalent to a 
defeat. 

§ 2. Yet that cheerfulness and energy under misfortune which form such 
striking and excellent traits in the character of the Athenians, did not long 
desert them. After the first movements of rage and despair, they began to 
contemplate their condition more calmly, and to take the necessary meas- 
ures for defence. A board of elders was appointed, under the name of 
Probiili,* to watch over the public safety. The splendor of the public 
cel-emonies was curtailed in order to raise funds for the necessities of 
the state ; the garrison recently established on tlie coast of Laconia was 
recalled ; the building of a new fleet was commenced ; and Cape Sunium 
was fortified in order to insure an uninterrupted communication between 
Peirisus and Euboea, from which island the Athenians principally drew 
their provisions. 

§ 3. "Whilst the imperial city was thus driven to consult for her very 
existence, it seemed a chimerical hope that she could retain her widely 
scattered dependencies. Her situation inspired her enemies with new 
vigor ; states hitherto neutral declared against her ; her subject allies pre- 
pared to throw off the yoke ; even the Persian satraps and the court of 
Susa bestirred themselves against her. The first blow to the Athenian 
empire Avas struck by the wealthy and populous island of Chios. This 
again was the work of Alcibiades, the implacable enemy of his native 
land. In the wintef following the overthrow of the Athenian armament 
m Sicily, several of the most powerful allies of Athens, among whom were 
the Euboeans, Chians, and Lesbians, had solicited Sparta to assist them in 
throwing off the Athenian yoke. At the same time envoys appeared at 

* HpojSovXot. 



326 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXI, 

Sparta from Tissapliernes, the Persian satrap of Ionia, Caria, and the 
adjacent coasts, and from Pharnabazus, whose satrapy extended from the 
Euxine to the Gulf of Elaea, inviting the Lacedaemonians to co-operate 
with them in destroying the Athenian empire in Asia, and promising to 
provide the necessary funds. 

By the advice of Alcibiades, the Lacedtemonians resolved that the 
Chians should have the preference, and that a fleet should be sent to their 
assistanf". Impatient of delay, Alcibiades shortly afterwards crossed over 
to Chios with a Lacedgemonian squadron of five ships, under the command 
of Chalcideus. The oligarchical party at Chios had matured all their 
plans for the revolt, and the arrival of Alcibiades caused them to be put 
into execution. The people were taken by surprise, and were reluctantly 
induced to renounce their alliance with Athens. Their example was 
almost immediately followed by Erythrse and Clazomense. 

§ 4. The reserve of one thousand talents, set apart by Pericles to meet 
the contingency of an actual invasion, still remained untouched ; but now 
by a unanimous vote the penalty of death, -vidaich foi-bade its appropriation 
to any other purpose, was abolished, and the fund applied in fitting out a 
fleet against Chios. Meantime, Alcibiades was indefatigable in fanning 
the flames of revolt, which now spread rapidly through the Athenian 
allies. Teos, Lesbos, and Miletus proclaimed their independence of 
Athens. At Miletus, Chalcideus, on the part of Sparta, concluded an 
infamous treaty with Tissaphernes, stipulating that the Greek cities and 
territory formerly belonging to Persia should be restored to her ; that the 
Athenians should not be permitted to dei'ive any revenue from them ; and 
that Persia and the Lacedaemonians should jointly carry on the war 
against Athens. To conclude the bargain, Miletus was handed over to 
Tissaphernes. 

Samos still remained faithful to the Athenians, and, amidst the general 
defection of their Asiatic allies, had become of the last importance to them. 
This island, like Chios, was governed by an oligarchy ; but, warned by the 
revolution in that island, the Samians rose against the oligarchs, slew two 
hundred of them, and banished four hundred more. The Athenians at 
once recognized the newly established democracy, and secured the adhe- 
sion of the Samians by putting them on the footing of equal and indepen- 
dent allies. Samos became the head-quarters of the Athenian fleet, and 
the base of their operations during the remainder of the war. 

§ 5. The tide of success at length began to turn in favor of the Athe- 
nians. They had succeeded in collecting a considerable fleet at Samos, 
with which they recovered Lesbos and Clazomenge, defeated the Chians, and 
laid waste their territory. They also gained a victory over the Pelopon- 
nesians at Miletus, but this powerful city still remained in the hands of 
Tissaphernes and the Peloponnesians. 

Towards the close of the year, Astyochus, the Lacedaemonian com- 



B. C. 412.] SCHEMES OF ALCIBIADES. 327 

mander, received large reinforcements from Peloponnesus, and was now at 
the head of so imposing an armament that he was enabled to modify the 
former treaty with Tissaphernes, of which the Lacedaemonians were 
heartily ashamed. The new treaty, however, differed from the previous 
one rather in terms than substance, and appears to have been far from 
giving satisfaction at Sparta. The conduct of Tissaphernes afforded 
another reason for discontent. He had given notice that he could no 
longer continue the high rate of payment of a drachma per day for the 
seamen's wages, the sum agreed upon in the first treaty, without express 
instructions from the court of Susa ; and though he had reduced that sum 
by one half, it was very irregularly paid ; whilst his whole behavior dis- 
played a great want of hearty co-operation with the Lacedasmonians. 
Another Peloponnesian squadron was therefore despatched to the coast of 
Asia, having on board Lichas and ten other Spartans, for the purpose of 
remonstrating with Tissaphernes and opening fresh negotiations. Having 
obtained an interview with Tissaphernes at Cnidus, Lichas took exceptions 
to the two former treaties ; of which the first expressly, the second by 
implication, recognized the claims of Persia, not only to the islands of the 
JEigean, but even to Thessaly and Boeotia. Lichas, therefore, proposed a 
new treaty ; but Tissaphernes was so indignant at the proposition, that he 
immediately broke off the negotiation. 

§ 6. The conduct of Tissaphernes towards the Lacedemonians was the 
result of the counsels of Alcibiades, who was scheming to effect his return 
to Athens by means of his intrigues with the Persian satrap. In the 
course of a few months Alcibiades had completely forfeited the confidence 
of the Lacedismonians. His ultra- Athenian temperament and manners 
must have been as unwelcome to them as their own slowness and gravity 
were to him. The Spartan King Agis, whose wife he had seduced, was 
his personal enemy ; and the Ephor Endius, his chief protector, went out 
of office in 412 b. c. To the preceding causes for private dislike was 
now added the want of that rapid success which he had promised to the 
Lacedasmonians in the East. Li a man whose character for deceit was 
notorious it is not surprising that this failure should excite a suspicion of 
ti'eachery. After the defeat of the Pelopohnesians at Miletus, King Agis 
denounced Alcibiades as a traitor, and persuaded the new Ephors to send 
out instructions to put him to death. Of tliis, however, he was informed 
time enough to make his escape to Tissaphernes at Magnesia. Here he 
began to play an anti-Hellenic, instead of his former anti- Athenian game. 
He ingratiated himself into the confidence of the satrap, and persuaded 
him that it was not for the interest of Persia that either of the Grecian 
parties should be successful, but rather that they should wear each other 
out in their mutual struggles, when Persia would in the end succeed in 
expelling both. This advice was adopted by the satrap ; and in order to 
.arry it into execution, steps were taken to secure the inactivity of the 



328 HISTORY OF GREECE. |;Chap. XXXI 

Peloponnesian armament, wtich, if vigorouslj employed, was powerful 
enough to put a speedy end to the war. With this view the Lacedae- 
monian commanders were first persuaded to await the arrival of the 
Phoenician fleet, which, however, was never intended to appear. But as 
this was a pretext which could not be made available for any length of 
time, the next argument was in the more solid shape of pecuniary bribes 
administered to Astyochus and the other Spartan leaders. Spartan 
virtue, which exists rather in imagination than reality, was not proof 
against this seduction. The Syracusan, Hermocrates, — for a Sicilian 
squadron was co-operating with the Peloponnesian fleet, — was alone 
found to be incorruptible. 

§ 7. Alcibiades, having thus in some degree detached Tissaphemes 
from the Lacedaemonians, now endeavored to persuade him that it was 
more for the Persian interest to conclude a league with Athens than with 
Sparta ; since the former state sought only to retain her maritime depen- 
dencies, whilst Sparta had held out promises of liberty to every Grecian 
city, from which she could not consistently recede. The only part of his 
advice, however, which the satrap seems to have sincerely adopted, was 
that of playing oflT one party against the other. But about this Alcibiades 
did not at all concern himself It was enough for his views, which had 
merely the selfish aim of his own restoration to Athens, if he could make it 
appear that he possessed sufficient influence with Tissaphemes to procure 
his assistance for the Athenians ; and for this the intimate terms on which 
he hved with the satrap seemed a sufficient guaranty. He therefore 
began to communicate with the Athenian generals at Samos, and held out 
the hope of a Persian alliance as the price of his restoration to his country. 
But as he both hated and feared the Athenian democracy, he coupled his 
offer with the condition that a revolution should be effected at Athens, and 
an oligarchy established. The Athenian generals greedily caught at the 
proposal ; and though the great mass of the soldiery Avere violently op- 
posed to it, they were silenced, if not satisfied, when told that Athens 
could be saved only by means of Persia. The oligarchical conspirators 
formed themselves into a confederacy, and Peisander was sent to Athens 
to organize the clubs in that city. But the conspirators overlooked the 
fact that the word of Alcibiades was their only security for the co-opera- 
tion of Persia. Phrynichus alone among the Athenian generals opposed 
the scheme ; not that he disliked oligarchy, but that he hated Alcibiades, 
and saw through his designs. 

§ 8. The proposition for an oligarchy which Peisander made in the 
Athenian assembly met with the most determined opposition ; whilst the 
personal enemies of Alcibiades, especially the sacred families of the 
Eumolpidaj and Ceryces, violently opposed the return of the man who had 
profaned the mysteries. The single but unanswerable reply of Peisander 
was, the necessities of the republic. A reluctant vote for a change of con- 



B. C. 412.] SCHEMES OF ALCIBIADES. 329 

stitution was at length extorted from the people. Peisander and ten 
others were despatched to treat with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes. At 
the same time Phrynichus and his colleague Scironides were deposed from 
their command at Samos, and their places supplied by Diomedon and 
Leon. Before his departure Peisander had brought all the oligarchical 
clubs in Athens into full activity. During his absence the same task was 
undertaken by Antiphon, the rhetorician. He was assisted by Thera- 
menes, and subsequently by Phrynichus, who, after his arrival at Athens, 
had become a violent partisan of the oligarchy. 

§ 9. When Peisander and his colleagues arrived in Ionia, they informed 
Alcibiades that measures had been taken for establishing an oligarchical 
form of government at Athens, and required him to fulfil his part of the 
engagement by procuring the aid and alliance of Persia. But Alcibiades 
knew that he had undertaken what he could not perform, and now resolved 
to escape from the dilemma by one of his habitual artifices. He received 
the Athenian deputation in the presence of Tissaphernes himself, and 
made such extravagant demands on behalf of the satrap that Peisandef 
and his colleagues indignantly broke off the conference. They attributed, 
however, the duplicity of Alcibiades to his want of will, and not to his 
want of power, to serve them ; and they now began to suspect that his 
oligarchical scheme was a mere trick, and that in reality he desired the 
democracy to remain, and to procure his restoration to its bosom. 

Tissaphernes, who did not wish absolutely to break with the Lacedge- 
monians, now began to fear that he was pushing matters too far ; and, as 
they already felt the pinch of want, he furnished them with some pay, and 
concluded a new treaty with them, by which they agreed to abandon all 
the continent of Asia, and consequently the Greek cities in that quarter. 
To this treaty Pharnabazus was also a party. Persia did not waive her 
claim to the islands, but nothing was stipulated respecting them. On 
these conditions the aid of a Phoenician fleet was promised to the Pelo- 
ponnesians. 

§ 10. Notwithstanding the conduct of Alcibiades, the oligarchical con- 
spirators proceeded with the revolution at Athens, in which they had gone 
too far to recede. Peisander, with five of the envoys, returned to Athens 
to complete the work they had begun ; the rest were sent to establish 
oligarchies among the allies. The leaders of the army at Samos began a 
similar movement in that island. Their first step was the gratuitous mur- 
der of Hyperbolus, an Athenian demagogue who had been ostracized some 
years before, and who was now residing at Samos, though apparently 
without possessing any influence there. But the new commanders, Dio- 
medon and Leon, were favorable to the democracy, and they found by 
personal inquiry that the great majority of the crews, and especially that 
of the public trireme called the Paralus, were ready to support the ancient 
constitution. Accordingly, when the oligarchs rose, they were overpowered 

42 



330 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXL 

by superior numbers ; thirty of them were killed in the contest, and three 
were subsequently indicted and banished. 

Meanwhile at Athens, after the departure of Peisander, the council 
of Probiili, as well as many leading citizens, had joined the ohgarehs. 
Their attacks upon the democracy were not open, but were conducted by 
means of depreciating speeches respecting its costliness, through the pay 
given to the dicasts and others discharging civil offices, which, it was 
represented, the state could no longer afford. They did not venture to 
propose the entire abolition of the democracy, but merely a modification of 
it, by restricting the number of those entitled to the franchise to five 
thousand. But even this proposition was never intended to be carried 
into execution. Those who stood forward to oppose the scheme were 
privately assassinated. A reign of terror now commenced. Citizens were 
continually falling ; yet no man could tell whose hand struck the blow, or 
whose turn might come next. 

§ 11. The return of Peisander was the signal for consummating the 
revolution. He proposed in the assembly, apd carried a resolution, that a. 
committee of ten should be appointed to prepare a new constitution, which 
was to be submitted to the approbation of the people. But when the day 
appointed for that purpose arrived, the assembly was not convened in the 
Pnyx, but in the temple of Poseidon at Colonus, a village upwards of a 
mile from Athens. Here the conspirators could plant their own partisans, 
and were less likely to be overawed by superior numbers. The Graphe 
Paranomon (ypacf)r] napavoficov), or action against those who proposed any 
unconstitutional measure, having first been repealed, Peisander obtained 
the assent of the meeting to the following revolutionary changes : — 1. The 
abolition of all the existing magistracies ; 2. The cessation of all payments 
for the discharge of civil functions ; 3. The appointment of a committee of 
five persons, who were to name ninety-five more ; each of the hundred 
thus constituted to choose three persons ; the body of Four Hundred thus 
formed to be an irresponsible government, holding its sittings in the 
Senate-House. The Four Hundred were to convene the select body of 
five thousand citizens whenever they thought proper. Nobody knew who 
these five thousand were, but they answered two purposes, namely, to 
give an air of greater popularity to the government, as well as to overawe 
the people by an exaggerated notion of its strength. 

§ 1 2. The government thus constituted proceeded to establish itself by 
force. A body of hoplites having been posted in the neighborhood of the 
Senate-House, the Four Hundred entered it, each with a dagger concealed 
under his garment, and followed by their body-guard of a hundred and 
twenty youths, the instruments of the secret assassinations already men- 
tioned. The ancient Senate was dismissed, but the pay due to the mem- 
bers was offered, and basely accepted. Thus perished the Athenian 
democracy, after an existence of nearly a century since its establishment; 



B. C. 411.] THE FOUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS. 331 

by Cleisthenes. The revolution was begun from despair of the foreign 
relations of Athens, and from the hope of assistance from Persia ; but it 
was carried out through the machinations of Antiphon and his accomplices 
after that delusion had ceased. 

Having divided themselves into Prytanias or sections, and installed 
themselves with sacrifice and prayer, the Four Hundred proceeded to put 
to death or imprison the most formidable of their political enemies. Their 
next step was to make overtures for peace to Agis. The Spartan king, 
however, believed that the revolution was not safely established, and pre- 
ferred an attempt to capture the city during the dissensions by which he 
supposed it to be torn. But on marching up to the walls he found them 
carefully guai'ded, and his troops were repulsed by a sally of the besieged. 
A second application of the Four Hundred met with a better reception, 
and they were encouraged to send to Sparta. 

§ 13. The failure of the revolution at Samos was highly unfavorable to 
the success of the revolution at Athens ; but the Four Hundred despatched 
envoys to that island, with instructions to make the matter as palatable 
as jwssible. These, however, had been forestalled by Choreas. Under 
the impression that the democracy still existed at Athens, Chsereas had 
been sent 1o the city from Samos in the Paralus with the news of the 
counter-revolution in the island. But when the Paralus arrived, the 
Four Hundred had already been installed ; whereupon some of her demo- 
cratic crew were imprisoned, and the rest transferred to an ordinary 
trireme. Choreas himself found means to escape, and returned to Samos, 
where he aggravated the proceedings at Athens by additions of his own, 
and filled the army with uncontrollable wrath. At the instance of Thrasy- 
bulus and Thrasyllus, a meeting was called in which the soldiers pledged 
themselves to maintain the democracy, to continue the war against Pelo- 
ponnesus, and to put down the usurpers at Athens. The whole army, 
even those who had taken part in the oligarchical movements, were sworn 
to uphold these principles ; and to every male Samian of military age a 
similar oath was administered. Thus the Athenian democracy continued 
to exist at Samos alone. The soldiers, laying aside for a while their mili- 
tary character, constituted themselves into an assembly of the people, 
deposed several of their officers, and appointed others whom they could 
better trust. The meeting resounded with patriotic speeches. Thrasy- 
bulus and Thrasyllus were appointed to the chief command ; the former of 
whom proposed the return of Alcibiades, who, it was believed, was now 
able and willing to aid the democratic cause with the gold and forces of 
Persia. After considerable opposition the proposal was agi'eed to ; Alci- 
biades was brought to Samos and introduced to the assembly, where, by 
his magnificent promises, and extravagant boasts respecting his influence 
with Tissaphernes, he once more succeeded in deceiving the Athenians. 
The accomplished traitor was elected one of the generals, and, in pur 



SS2 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXI 

etfance of his artful policy, began to pass backwards and forwards between 
Samos and Magnesia, with the view of inspiring both the satrap and the 
Athenians with a reciprocal idea of his influence with either, and of 
instilling distrust of Tissaphernes into the minds of the Peloponnesians. 

§ 14. Such was the state of affairs at Samos when the envoys from the 
Four Hundred arrived. They were invited by the generals to make their 
communication to the assembled troops ; but so great was the antipathy 
manifested towards them, that they could hardly obtain a hearing. Their 
presence revived a proposition which had been started before, — to sail at 
once to Athens, and put down the oligarchy by force. By the advice of 
Alcibiades, seconded by Thrasybulus, this proposal was, however, again 
discarded. The envoys were sent back to Athens with the answer that 
the army approved of the five thousand, but that the Four Hundred must 
resign and reinstate the ancient Senate of Five Hundred. 

§ 15. At the first news of the re-establishment of democracy at Samos, 
distrust and discord had broken out among the Four Hundred. Antiphon 
and Phrynichus, at the head of the extreme section of the oligarchical 
party, were for admitting a Lacedasmonian garrison ; and, with a view to 
further that object, actually caused a fort to be erected at Eetionea, a 
tongue of land commanding the entrance to the hai'bor of the Peirseus.* 
But others, discontented with their share of power, began to affect more 
popular sentiments. Conspicuous among these were Theramenes and 
Aristocrates, the former of whom began to insist on the necessity for call- 
ing the shadowy body of five thousand into a real existence. As the 
answer from Samos very much strengthened this party, their opponents 
found that no time was to be lost; and Antiphon, Phrynichus, and ten 
others, proceeded in all haste to Sparta, with offers to put the Lacedae- 
monians in possession of the Peirseus. The latter, however, with their 
usual slowness, or perhaps from a suspicion of treachery, let slip the 
golden opportunity. All they could be induced to promise was, that a fleet 
of forty-two triremes should hover near the Peiraeus, and watch a favor- 
able occasion for seizing it. The failure of this mission was another blow 
to the party of Phrynichus ; and shortly afterwards that leader himself 
was assassinated in open daylight whilst leaving the Senate-House. Some 
hoplites, of the same tribe as Aristocrates, now seized the fort at Eetionea* 
Theramenes gave his sanction to the demolition of the fort, which was 
forthwith accomplished ; whilst the inability of the Four Hundred to pre- 
vent it betrayed the extent of their power, or rather of their weakness. 

§ 16. The Four Hundred now appear to have taken some steps to call 
the five thousand into existence. But it was too late. The leaders of the 
counter-revolution, entering armed into the theatre of Dionysus at the 
Peiraeus, formed a democratic assembly under the old forms, which 

* On the left to one entering the harbor, i. e. on the northern side. — Ed. 



B.C. 411.] OVERTHROW OF THE FOUR HUNDRED. 333 

adjourned to the Anaceum, or temple of the Dioscuri, immediately under 
the Acropolis. Here the Four Hundred sent deputies to negotiate with 
them, arid another assembly was appointed to be held in the theatre of 
Dionysus ; but just as they were meeting the news arrived that the Lace- 
daimonian fleet was approaching the Peiroeus. The Athenians were 
immediately on the alert, and the Lacedaemonian admiral, perceiving no 
signs of assistance from within, doubled Cape Sunium and proceeded to 
Oropus. It was now plain that their object was to excite a revolt in 
Eubcea. In all haste the Athenians launched an inadequate fleet of 
thirty-six triremes, manned by inexperienced crews. At Eretria in 
Euboea it was encountered by the Lacedaemonian fleet, and completely 
defeated, with the loss of twenty-two ships. Eubcea, supported by the 
Lacedajmonians and Boeotians, then revolted from Athens. 

§ 17. Great was the dismay of the Athenians on receiving this news. 
The loss of Euboea seemed a death-blow. The Lacedaemonians might now 
easily blockade the ports of Athens and starve her into surrender ; whilst 
the partisans of the Four Hundred would doubtless co-operate with the 
enemy. But from this fate they were again saved by the characteristic 
slowness of the Lacedaemonians, who confined themselves to securing the 
conquest of Euboea. Thus left unmolested, the Athenians convened an 
assembly in the Pnyx. Votes were passed for deposing the Four Hun- 
dred, and placing the government in the hands of the five thousand, of 
whom every citizen who could furnish a panoply might be a member. la 
short, the old constitution was restored, except that the franchise was 
restricted to five thousand citizens, and payment for the discharge of civil 
functions abolished. In subsequent assemblies, the Archons, the Senate, 
and other institutions were revived ; and a vote was passed to recall Alci- 
biades and some of his friends. The number of the five thousand was 
never exactly observed, and was soon enlarged into universal citizenship. 
Thus the Four Hundred were overthrown after a reign of four months. 
Theramenes stood forward and impeached the leaders of the extreme 
oligarchical party, on the ground of their embassy to Sparta. Most of 
them succeeded in making their escape from Athens ; but Antiphon and 
Archiptolemus were apprehended, condemned, and executed, in spite of the 
admiration excited by the speech of the former m his defence. The rest 
were arraigned in their absence and condemned, their houses razed, and 
their property confiscated.* 

* Thucydides (Lib. VIII. 68) states that Antiphon made the ablest defence that had ever 
been heard down to his time. Tlie houses of Archiptolemus and Antiphon were razed to 
the ground, and on the columns marking the boundaries of their lots were inscribed 
the words, " Archiptolemus and Antiphon, the two traitors." — Ed. 



334 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXTT 




One of the Caryatides supporting the southern portico of the ErechthSnin. 
CHAPTER XXXn. 

FBOM THE FALL OF THE FOUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS TO THE BATTLE 
OP iEGOSPOTAMI. 



§ 1. State of the Belligerents. § 2. Defeat of the Peloponnesians at Cynossema. ^ 3. Cap- 
ture of Cyzicus by the Athenians, and Second Defeat of the Peloponnesians at Abydos. 
§ 4. Arrest of Alcibiades by Tissaphernes, and his subsequent Escape. Signal Defeat of 
the Peloponnesians at Cyzicus. § 5. The Athenians Masters of the Bosporus. The 
Lacedemonians propose a Peace, which is rejected. § 6. Pharnabazus assists the Lace- 
demonians. § 7. Capture of Chalcedon and Byzantium by the Athenians. § 8. Ketum 
of Alcibiades to Athens. § 9. He escorts the Sacred Procession to Eleusis. § 10. Cyrus 
comes down to the Coast of Asia. Lysander appointed Commander of the Peloponnesian 
Fleet. ^ 11. Interview between Cyrus and Lysander. § 12. Alcibiades at Samos. 
Defeat of Antiochus at Notium. ^ 13. Alcibiades is dismissed. § 14. Lysander super- 
seded by Callicratidas. Energetic Measures of the Latter. § 15. Defeat of Conon at 
Mytilene, and Investment of that Town by Callicratidas. § 16. Excitement at Athens, 
and Equipment of a large Fleet. § 17. Battle of Arginusse. Defeat and Death of Calli- 
cratidas. § 18. Arraignment and Condemnation of the Athenian Generals. § 19. Ee- 
appointment of Lysander as Navarchus. § 20. Siege of Lampsacus, and Battle of 
iEgospotami. 

§ 1. It is necessary now to revert to the war, and the state of the con- 
tending parties. The struggle had become wholly maritime. Although 



B.C. 411.] DEFEAT OF THE PELOPONNESIANS AT CTNOSSEMA. 335 

the Lacedasmonians occupied at Decelea a strong post within sight of 
Athens, yet their want of skill in the art of besieging towns prevented 
them from making any regular attempt to capture that city. On the other 
hand, the great reverses sustained by the Athenians in Sicily disabled 
them from carrying the war, as they had formerly done, into the enemy's 
country. Yet they still possessed a tolerable fleet, with which they were 
endeavoring to maintain their power in the JEgean and on the coasts and 
islands of Asia Minor. This was now become the vital point where they 
had to struggle for empire, and even for existence ; for, since the commence- 
ment of the Avar, the maritime power of the Spartans and their allies had 
become almost equal to the maritime power of Athens. They now put to 
sea with fleets generally larger than the fleets of the Athenians ; and their 
ships were handled, and naval manceuvres executed, with a skill equal to 
that of their rivals. The great attention which the Lacedaemonians had 
bestowed on naval affairs is evinced by the importance into which the new 
office of the Navarchia * had now risen amongst them. The Navarchus * 
enjoyed a power even superior, whilst it lasted, to that of the Spartan 
kings, since he was wholly uncontrolled by the Ephors ; but his tenure of 
office was limited to a year. From this state of things it resulted that the 
remainder of the war had to be decided on the coasts of Asia ; and it wiU 
assist the memory to conceive it divided into four periods : 1. The war on 
the Hellespont (which must be taken to include the Propontis, whither it 
was transferred soon after the oligarchical revolution at Athens) ; 2. From 
the Hellespont it was transferred to Ionia ; 3. From Ionia to Lesbos ; 
4. Back to the Hellespont, where it was finally decided. 

§ 2. Mindarus, who now commanded the Peloponnesian fleet, dis- 
gusted at length by the often-broken promises of Tissaphernes, and the 
scanty and irregular pay which he furnished, set sail from Miletus and 
proceeded to the Hellespont, with the intention of assisting the satrap 
Pharnabazus, and of effecting, if possible, the revolt of the Athenian 
dependencies in that quarter. Hither he was pursued by the Athenian 
fleet under Thrasyllus. In a few days an engagement ensued (in August, 
411 B. c), in the famous straits between Sestos and Abydos, in which the 
Athenians, though with a smaller force, gained the victory, and erected a 
trophy on the promontory of Cynossema, near the tomb and chapel of the 
Trojan queen, Hecuba. After this defeat Mindarus sent for the Pelopon- 
nesian fleet at Euboea, which, however, was overtaken by a violent storm 
near the headland of Mount Athos, and totally destroyed. But though 
this circumstance aflforded some relief to Athens, by withdrawing an 
annoying enemy from her shores, it did not enable her to regain possession 
of Euboea. The Euboeans, assisted by the Boeotians, and by the inhabit' 
ants of Chalcis and other cities, constructed a bridge across the narrowest 
part of the Euripus, and thus deprived Euboea of its insular character. 

* N/^Tl/^o^'(^f ■ Nat/aOYOff. 



336 HISTOKY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXII. 

§ 3. The Athenians followed up their victory at Cynossema by the 
reduction of Cyzicus, which had revolted from them. A month or two 
afterwards another obstinate engagement took place between the Pelopon- 
nesian and Athenian fleets near Abydos, which lasted a whole day, am\ 
was at length decided in favor of the Athenians by the arrival of Alcibi- 
ades wdth his squadron of eighteen ships from Samos. The Pelopon- 
nesian ships were run ashore, Avhere they were defended, with great per- 
sonal exertion, by Pharnabazus and his troops. 

§ 4. Shortly after this battle Tissaphernes arrived at the Hellespont 
with the view of conciliating the offended Peloponnesians. He was not 
only jealous of the assistance which the latter were now rendering to 
Pharnabazus, but it is also evident that his temporizing policy had dis- 
pleased the Persian court. This appears from his conduct on the present 
occasion, as well as from the subsequent appointment of Cyrus to the 
supx'eme command on the Asiatic coast, as we shall presently have to 
relate. When Alcibiades, who imagined that Tissaphernes was still 
favorable to the Athenian cause, waited on him with the customary 
presents, he was arrested by order of the satrap, and sent in custody to 
Sardis. At the end of a month, however, he contrived to escape to 
Clazomenee, and again joined the Athenian fleet early in the spring of 
410 B. c. Mindarus, with the assistance of Pharnabazus on the land side, 
was now engaged in the siege of Cyzicus, Avhich the Athenian admirals 
determined to relieve. Having passed up the Hellespont in the night, 
they assembled at the island of Proconnesus. Here Alcibiades addressed 
the seamen, telling them that they had nothing further to expect from the 
Persians, and must be prepared to act with the greatest vigor both by sea 
and land. He then sailed out with liis squadron towards Cyzicus, and by 
a pretended flight inveigled Mindarus to a distance from the harbor; 
whilst the other two divisions of the Athenian fleet, under Thrasybulus 
and Thrasyllus, being favored by hazy weather, stole between Mindarus 
and the harbor, and cut off his retreat. In these circumstances the Spar- 
tan commander ran his vessels ashore, where, with the assistance of 
Pharnabazus, he endeavored to defend them against the attacks of the 
Athenians. Alcibiades havmg landed his men, a battle ensued, in which 
Mindarus was slain, the Lacedcemonians and Persians routed, and the 
whole Peloponnesian fleet captured, with the exception of the Syracusan 
ships, which Hermocrates caused to be burnt. The severity of this blow 
was pictured in the laconic epistle in which Hippocrates, the second in 
command,* announced it to the Ephors : '• Our good luck is gone; Minda- 
rus is slain ; the men are starving ; we know not what to do." 

§ 5. The results of this victory were most important. Perinthus and 
Selymbria, as well as Cyzicus, were recovered ; and the Athenians, once 

* Called EpistoUvs Q'EitKTToKevs) or "Secretary " in the Lacedsemonian fleet. 



B. C. 407.] ALCIBIADES RETURNS TO ATHENS. 337 

more masters of the Propontis, fortified the town of Chrysopolis, over 
against Byzantium, at the entrance of the Bosporus ; re-established their 
toll of ten per cent, on all vessels passing from the Euxine ; and left a 
squadron to guard the strait and collect the dues. So great was the dis- 
couragement of the Lacedaemonians at the loss of their fleet, that the 
Ephor, Endius, proceeded to Athens to treat for peace on the basis of both 
parties standing just as they were. The Athenian assembly was at this 
time led by the demagogue Cleophon, a lamp-maker, known to us by the 
later comedies of Aristophanes. Cleophon appears to have been a man of 
considerable ability ; but the recent victories had inspired him with too san- 
guine hopes, and he advised the Athenians to reject the terms proposed 
by Endius. Athens thus threw away the golden opportunity of recruiting 
her shattered forces, of which she stood so much in need ; and to this un- 
fortunate advice must be ascribed the calamities which subsequently over- 
took her. 

§ 6. Meanwhile Pharnabazus was active in affording the Lacedaemo- 
nians all the assistance in his power. He clothed and armed their seamen, 
furnished them with provisions and pay for two months, opened to them 
the forests of Mount Ida for supplies of timber, and assisted them in build- 
ing new ships at Antandros. He helped them to defend Chalcedon, now 
besieged by Alcibiades, and by his means that town was enabled to hold 
out for a long time. But the Athenians had already obtained their prm- 
cipal object. The possession of the Bosporus reopened to them the trade 
of the Euxine. From his lofty fortress at Decelea, the Spartan king, 
Agis, could descry the corn-ships from the Euxine sailing into the harbor 
of the PeiriBus, and felt how fruitless it was to occupy the fields of Attica 
whilst such abundant supplies of provisions were continually finding their 
way to the city. 

§ 7. The year 409 b. c. was not marked by any memorable events ; 
but in the following year Chalcedon at length surrendered to the com- 
bined Athenian forces, in spite of an attempt of Pharnabazus to save it. 
Selymbria was also taken by Alcibiades about the same time. Byzan- 
tium fell next. After it had been besieged by Alcibiades for some 
months, the gates were opened to the Athenians towards the close of the 
year 408 b. c, through the treachery of a party among its inhabitants. 

§ 8. These great achievements of Alcibiades naturally paved the way 
for his return to Athens. Li the spring of 407 b. c. he proceeded with 
the fleet to Samos, and from thence sailed to Peiraeus. His reception was 
far more favorable than he had ventured to anticipate. The whole popula- 
tion of Athens flocked down to Peiraeus to welcome him, and escorted him 
to the city. In the Senate and in the assembly he protested his innocence 
of the impieties imputed to him, and denounced the injustice of his enemies. 
His sentence was reversed without a dissentient voice ; his confiscated 
property restored ; the curse of the Eumolpidae revoked, and the leaden 
43 



338 msTOKT OF Greece. [Chap. XXXII 

plate on which it was engraven thrown into the sea. He seemed to be in 
the present juncture the only man capable of restoring the grandeur and 
the empire of Athens ; he was accordingly named general with unlimited 
powers, and a force of one hundred triremes, fifteen hundred hoplites, 
and one hundred and fifty cavalry placed at his disposal. 

§ 9. But whatever change eight years of exile and his recent achieve- 
ments had produced in the pubhc feeling towards Alcibiades, it was one 
of forgiveness rather than of love, and rested more on the hopes of the 
future than on the remembrance of the past. The wounds which he had 
inflicted on Athens in the affairs of Syracuse and Decelea, in the revolts 
of Chios and Miletus, and in the organization of the conspiracy of the 
Four Hundred, were too severe to be readily forgotten ; and he had still 
many enemies, who, though silent amid the general applause, did not cease 
to whisper their secret condemnation. Alcibiades, however, disbelieved or 
disregarded their machinations, and yielded himself without reserve to the 
breeze of popular favor which once more filled his sails. Before his de- 
parture, he took an opportunity to atone for the impiety of which he had 
been suspected. Although his armament was in perfect readiness, he 
: delayed its sailing till after the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries at 
the beginning of September. For seven years the customary procession 
across the Thriasian plain had been suspended, owing to the occupation of 
Decelea by the enemy, which compelled the sacred troop to proceed by 
sea. Alcibiades now escorted them on their progress and return with 
his forces, and thus succeeded in reconcihng himself with the offended 
goddesses and with their holy priests, the Eumolpidse. 

§ 10. Meanwhile, a great change had been going on in the state of 
affairs in the East. We have already seen that the Great King was dis- 
pleased with the vacillating policy of Tissaphernes, and had determined to 
adopt more energetic measures against the Athenians. During the ab- 
sence of Alcibiades, Cyrus, the younger son of Darius, a prince of a bold 
and enterprising spirit, and animated with a lively hatred of Athens, had 
arrived at the coast for the purpose of carrying out the altered policy of 
the Persian court ; and with that view had been invested with the satra- 
pies of Lydia, the Greater Phrygia, and Cappadocia, as well as with the 
military command of all those forces which mustered at Castolus. The 
arrival of Cyrus opens the last phase of the Peloponnesian war. Another 
event, in the highest degree unfavorable to the Athenian cause, was the 
accession of Lysander, as Navarchus, to the command of the Pelopon- 
nesian fleet. Lysander was the third of the remarkable men whom 
Sparta produced during the war. In ability, energy, and success he may 
be compared with Brasidas and Gylippus, though immeasurably inferior 
to the former in every moral quality. He was born of poor parents, and 
was by descent a moihax, or one of those Lacedaemonians who could nevei 
enjoy the full rights of Spartan citizenship. The allureni -wts of money 



B. C 407.J ARRIVAL OF CYRUS ON THE COAST. 339 

and of pleasure had no influence over him ; but his ambition was bound- 
less, and he was wholly unscrupulous about the means which he em- 
ployed to gratify it. In pursuit of his objects he hesitated at neither 
deceit, nor perjury, nor cruelty, and he is reported to have laid it down as 
one of his maxims in life, to avail himself of the fox's skin where the 
lion's failed. 

§ 11. Lysander had taken up his station at Ephesus, with the Lacedae- 
monian fleet of seventy triremes ; and when Cyrus arrived at Sardis, in 
the spring of 407 b. c, he hastened to pay his court to the young prince, 
and was received with every mark of favor. A vigorous line of action was 
resolved on. Cyrus at once offered five hundred talents, and affirmed 
that, if more were needed, he was prepared to devote his private funds to 
the cause, and even to coin into money the very throne of gold and silver 
on which he sat. In a banquet which ensued, Cyrus drank to the health 
of Lysander, and desired him to name any wish which he could gratify. 
Lysander immediately requested an addition of an obolus to the daily 
pay of the seamen. Cyrus was surprised at so disinterested a demand, 
and from that day conceived a high degree of respect and confidence for 
the Spartan commander. Lysander on his return to Ephesus employed 
himself in refitting his fleet, and in organizing clubs in the Spartan in- 
terest in the cities of Asia. 

§ 12. Alcibiades set sail from Athens in September. He first proceeded 
to Andros, now occupied by a Lacedtemonian force ; but, meeting with a 
stouter resistance than he expected, he left Conon with twenty ships to 
prosecute the siege, and proceeded with the remainder to Samos. It was 
here that he first learnt the altered state of the Athenian relations with 
Persia. Being ill provided with funds for carrying on the war, he was 
driven to make predatory excursions for the purpose of raising money. 
He attempted to levy contributions on Cyme, an unoffending Athenian 
dependency, and, being repulsed, ravaged its territory ; an act which caused 
loud complaints against him to be lodged at Athens. During his absence 
on this expedition, he intrusted the bulk of the fleet at Samos to his pilot, 
Antiochus, with strict injunctions not to venture on an action. Notwith- 
standing these orders, however, Antiochus sailed out and brought the Pe- 
loponnesian fleet to an engagement off Notium, in which the Athenians 
were defeated with the loss of fifteen ships, and Antiochus himself was 
slain. Among the Athenian armament itself great dissatisfaction was 
growing up against Alcibiades. Though at the head of a splendid force, 
ne had in three months' time accomplished literally nothing. His debauch- 
eries and dissolute conduct on shore were charged against him, as well 
as his selecting for confidential posts not the men best fitted for them, but 
those who, like Antiochus, were the boon companions and the '•hosen as- 
BOciates of his revels. 

§ 13. These accusations forwarded to Athens, strengthened by com« 



340 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIl 

plaints from Cyme, and fomented by his secret enemies, soon produced an 
entire revulsion in the public feeling towards Alcibiades, It was seen 
that he was still the same man, and that he had relapsed into all his former 
habits, in the confidence that his success and two or three years of good 
behavior had succeeded in recovering for him the favor and esteem of 
his countrymen. The Athenians voted that he should be dismissed from 
his command, and appointed in his place ten new generals, with Conon at 
their head. 

§ 14. The year of Lysander's command expired about the same time 
as the appointment of Conon to the Athenian command. Thi-ough the 
intrigues of Lysander, his successor, Callicratidas, was received with dis- 
satisfaction both by the Lacedaemonian seamen and by Cyrus. Loud 
complaints were raised of the impolicy of an annual change of commanders. 
Lysander threw all sorts of difficulties into the way of his successor, to 
whom he handed over an empty chest, having first repaid to Cyrus all 
the money in his possession, under the pretence that it was a private loan. 
The straightforward conduct of Callicratidas, however, who summoned the 
Lacedaemonian commanders, and, after a dignified remonstrance, plainly 
put the question whether he should return home or remain, silenced al! 
opposition. But he was sorely embarrassed for funds. Cyrus treated 
him with haughtiness ; and when he waited on that prince at Sardis, he 
was dismissed, not only without money, but even without an audience. 
Callicratidas, however, had too much energy to be daunted by such obsta- 
cles. Sailing with his fleet from Ephesus to Miletus, he laid before the 
assembly of that city, in a spirited address, all the ills they had suffered 
at the hands of the Persians, and exhorted them to bestir themselves and 
dispense with their alliance. He succeeded in persuading the Milesians 
to make him a large grant of money, wliilst the leading men even came 
forward with private subscriptions. By means of this assistance he was 
enabled to add fifty triremes to the ninety delivered to him by Lysander; 
and the Chians further provided him with ten days' pay for the seamen. 
He now sailed for Lesbos, and, taking the town of MethjTnna by storm, 
delivered it over to be plundered by his men. He likewise caused all 
the slaves to be sold for their benefit, but he nobly refused to follow the 
example of his predecessors, in selling the Athenian garrison and Me- 
thymnasan citizens as slaves ; declaring that, so long as he held the com- 
mand, no Greek should ever be reduced to slavery. 

§ 15. The fleet of Callicratidas was now double that of Conon. Like 
the Doge of Venice in modern times, he claimed the sea as his lawful bride, 
and warned Conon by a message to abstain from his adulterous intercourse. 
The latter, who had ventured to approach Methymna, was compelled to 
run before the superior force of Callicratidas. Both fleets entered the 
harbor of Mytilene at the same time, where a battle ensued in which Co- 
non lost thirty ships, but he saved the remaining forty by hauling them 



B. C. 406.J BATTLE OF ARGINUS^. 341 

ashore under the walls of the town. Callicratidas then blockaded Myti- 
lene both by sea and land ; whilst Cyrus, on learning his success, imme 
diately furnished him with supplies of money. Conon, however, contrived 
to despatch a trireme to Athens with the news of his desperate position. 

§ 16. As soon as the Athenians received intelligence of the blockade 
of Mytilene, vast efforts were made for its relief; and we learn with sur- 
prise, that in thirty days a fleet of one hundred and ten triremes was 
equipped and despatched from Peira3us. The armament assembled at 
Samos, where it was reinforced by scattered Athenian ships, and by con- 
tingents from the allies, to the extent of forty vessels. The whole fleet 
of one hundred and fifty sail then proceeded to the small islands of Argi- 
nusfE, near the coast of Asia, and facing Malea, the southeastern cape of 
Lesbos. Callicratidas, who went out to meet them, took up his station at 
the latter point, leaving Eteonicus with fifty ships to maintain the blockade 
of Mytilene. He had thus only one hundred and twenty ships to oppose 
to the one hundred and fifty of the Athenians, and his pilot, Hermon, ad- 
vised him to retire before the superior force of the enemy. But Callicra- 
tidas replied, that he would not disgrace himself by flight, and that if he 
ehould perish, Sparta would not feel his loss. 

§ 17. The greatest precautions were taken in drawing up the Athenian 
fleet. The main strength was thrown into the wings, each of which con- 
sisted of sixty Athenian ships, divided into four squadrons of fifteen each, 
ranged in a double line. The Peloponnesian fleet, on the contrary, was 
drawn up m a single extended line ; a circumstance displaying great con- 
fidence of superiority, and which denoted a vast change in the relative 
naval skill of the parties ; for at the beginning of the war their tactics 
had been precisely the reverse. It must, however, be borne in mind, that 
the far greater part of the Athenian fleet was on this occasion manned by 
hastily raised crews, who had never beeii to sea before ; . whilst the Pelo- 
ponnesian sailors had been well trained by several years' experience. 

The battle was long and obstinate. All order was speedily lost, and 
the ships fought singly with one another. In one of these contests, Calli- 
cratidas, who stood on the prow of his vessel ready to board the enemy, was 
thrown overboard by the shock of the vessels as they met, and perishedi. 
At length victory began to declare for the Athenians. The Lacedtemo- 
hians, after losing seventy-seven vessels, retreated with the remainder to 
Chios and Phocasa. The loss of the Athenians was ttventy-five vessels. 

Eteonicus was now in jeopardy at Mytilene. Whett informed of the 
defeat of his countrymen, he directed the vessel which brought the news 
jO put to sea again, and to retura with wreaths and shouts of triumph ; 
whilst, taking advantage of the false impression thus raised in the minds 
of the Athenians, he hastily got ready for sea, and reached Chios in safety. 
At the same time the blockading ai'my was withdrawn to Methymna. 
Conon, thus unexpectedly liberated, put to sea, and the united fleet took 
np their station at Sflmna 



342 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXII. 

§ 18. The battle of Arginusse led to a deplorable event, which has foi 
ever sullied the pages of Athenian history. At least a dozen Athenian 
vessels were left floating about in a disabled condition after the battle ; but, 
owing to a violent storm that ensued, no attempt was made to rescue the 
survivors, or to collect the bodies of the dead for burial. Eight of the 
ten generals were summoned home to answer for this conduct ; Conon, by 
his situation at Mytilene, was of course exculpated, and Archestratus had 
died. Six of the generals obeyed the summons, and were denounced in 
the assembly by Theramenes, formerly one of the Four Hundred, for 
neglect of duty. The generals replied, that they had commissioned Thera- 
menes himself and Thrasybulus, each of whom commanded a trii-eme in 
the engagement, to undertake the duty, and had assigned forty-eight ships 
to them for that purpose. This, however, was denied by Theramenes; 
and unluckily the generals, from a feeling of kindness towards the latter, 
had made no mention of the circumstance in their public despatches, but 
had attributed the abandonment of the foundering vessels solely to the 
violence of the storm. There are discrepancies in the evidence, and we 
have no materials for deciding positively which statement was true ; but 
probabihty inclines to the side of the generals. Public feeling, however, 
ran very strongly against them, and was increased by an incident which 
occurred during their trial. After a day's debate the question was ad- 
journed ; and in the interval the festival of the Apaturia was celebrated, 
in which, according to annual custom, the citizens met together according 
to their families and phratries. Those who had perished at Arginusae 
were naturally missed on such an occasion ; and the usually cheerful char- 
acter of the festival was deformed and rendered melancholy by the rela- 
tives of the deceased appearing in black clothes and with shaven heads. 
The passions of the people were violently roused. At the next meeting 
of the Assembly, Callixenus, a senator, proposed that the people should 
at once proceed to pass its verdict on the generals, though they had been 
only partially heard in their defence ; and, moreover, that they should all 
be included in one sentence, though it was contrary to a rule of Attic 
law, known as the psephisma of Cannonus, to indict citizens othei'wise than 
individually. Callixenus carried his motion in spite of the threat of Euryp- 
tolemus to indict him for an illegal proceeding under the Graphi Para- 
nomon. The Prytanes, or senators of the presiding tribe, at first refused 
to put the question to the Assembly in this illegal way ; but their opposi- 
tion was at length overawed by clamor and violence. There was, how- 
ever, one honorable exception. The philosopher Socrates, who was one 
of the Prytanes, refused to withdraw his protest.* But his opposition 



* Socrates happened to be President CETrioraTr/j) of the Prytanes on that day ; and, aa 
presiding officer, rtfvsed to put the vote. The decision was therefore adjourned to the next 
day, when a more pliant officer put the vote and the generals were condemned. — Ed. 



B. C. 406.] EXECUTION OF THE GENERALS. 343 

was disregarded, and the proposal of Callixenus was carried. The gen- 
erals were condemned, delivered over to the Eleven for execution, and 
compelled to drink the fatal hemlock. Among them was Pericles, the son 
of the celebrated statesman. The Athenians afterwards repented of their 
rash precipitation, and decreed that Callixenus and his accomplices should 
in their turn be brought to trial ; but before the appointed daj thej man- 
aged to escape. 

§ 19. After the battle of Arginusse the Athenian fleet seems to have 
remained inactive at Samos during the rest of the year. Through the 
influence of Cyrus, and the other allies of Sparta, Lysander again ob- 
tained the command of the Peloponnesian fleet at the commencement of the 
year 405 B. c. ; though nominally under Aracus as admiral ; since it was 
contrary to Spartan usage that the same man should be twice Navarchus* 
His return to power was marked by more vigorous measures. Fresh funda 
were obtained from Cyrus ; the arrears due to the seamen were paid up ; 
and new triremes were put upon the stocks at Antandrus. Oligarchical 
revolutions were effected in Miletus and other towns. Summoned to visit 
his sick father in Media, Cyrus even delegated to Lysander the manage- 
ment of his satrapy and revenues during his absence. Lysander was thus 
placed in possession of power never before realized by any Lacedaemonian 
commander. But the Athenian fleet under Conon and his coadjutors was 
still superior in numbers, and Lysander carefully avoided an engagement. 
He contrived, however, to elude the Athenian fleet, and to cross the 
^gean to the coast of Attica, where he had an interview with Agis ; and, 
proceeding thence to the Hellespont, which Conon had left unguarded, he 
took up his station at Abydos. 

§ 20. The Athenians were at this time engaged in ravaging Chios ; but 
when they heard of this movement, and that Lysander had commenced the 
siege of Lampsacus, they immediately sailed for the Hellespont. They 
arrived too late to save the town, but they proceeded up the strait and 
took post at JEgospotami, or the " Goat's River " ; a place which had 
nothing to recommend it, except its vicinity to Lampsacus, from which it 
was separated by a channel somewhat less than two miles broad. It was 
a mere desolate beach, without houses or inhabitants, so that all the sup- 
plies had to be fetched from Sestos, or from the surrounding country, and 
the seamen were compelled to leave their ships in order to obtain their 
meals. Under these circumstances the Athenians were very desirous of 
bringing Lysander to an engagement. But the Spartan commander, 
who was in a strong position, and abundantly supplied with provisions, 
was in no hurry to run any risks. In vain did the Athenians sail 
over several days in succession to offer him battle ; they always found 
his ships ready manned, and drawn up in too strong a position to 

* Lysander received the title of Epistoleus. See note on p. 336. 



344 HISTORY OF GKEECE. [Chap. XXXII 

warrant an attack ; nor could tliey by all their manoeuvres succeed in 
enticing him out to combat. This cowardice, as they deemed it, on 
the part of the Lacedaemonians, begat a corresponding negligence on 
theirs : discipline was neglected, and the men allowed to straggle almost 
at will. It was in vain that Alcibiades, who since his dismissal re- 
sided in a fortress in that neighborhood, remonstrated with the Athenian 
generals on the exposed nature of the station they had chosen, and 
advised them to proceed to Sestos. His counsels were received with 
taunts and insults. At length, on the fifth day, Lysander, having watched 
an opportunity when the Athenian seamen had gone on shore and were 
dispersed over the country, rowed swiftly across the strait with all his 
ships. He found the Athenian fleet, with the exception of ten or twelve 
vessels, totally unprepared, and succeeded in capturing nearly the whole of 
it, without having occasion to strike a single blow. Of the hundred and 
eighty ships which composed the fleet, only the trireme of Conon himself, 
the Paralus, and eight or ten other vessels, succeeded in escaping. Conon 
was afraid to return to Athens after so signal a disaster, and took refuge 
with Evagoras, prince of Salamis, in Cyprus. All the Athenian prisoners, 
amounting to three or four thousand, together with the generals, were put 
to death by order of Lysander, in retaliation for the cruelty with which the 
Athenians had treated the prisoners they had lately made. 

By this momentous victory, which was suspected to have been achieved 
through the corrupt connivance of some of the Athenian generals, the con- 
test on the Hellespont, and virtually the Peloponnesian war, was brought 
to an end. The closing scene of the catastrophe was enacted at Athens 
itself; but the fate of the imperial city must be reserved for another 
chapter 




Bast of the Poet Euripides- 



B. C. 405.1 



ALARM AT ATHENS. 



zu 




View of Phyl(5. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

FROM THE BATTLE OF iEGOSPOTAMI TO THE OVERTHROW OP THK 
THIRTY TYRANTS AND THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OP DEMOCRACY AT 
ATHENS. 

1 1. Alarm at Athens. § 2. Proceedings of Lysander. Capture of the Athenian Dependen- 
cies. ^ 3. Measures of the Athenians. Athens invested. § 4. Embassy of Theramenes. 
Conditions of Capitulation. § 5. Lysander takes Possession of Athens. Destruction of 
the Long Walls, &c. § 6. Return of the Oligarchical Exiles. Establishment of the Thirty. 
§ 7. Surrender of Samos and Triumph of Lysander. § 8. Proceedings of the Thirty at 
Athens. ^ 9. Opposition of Theramenes. ^ 10. Proscriptions. Death of Theramenes. 
§ 11. Suppression of Intellectual Culture. Socrates. § 12. Death of Alcibiades. 
§ 13. Jealousy of the Grecian States towards Sparta and Lysander. § 14. Thrasybulus 
at Phyle. § 15. Seizure and Massacre of the Eleusinians. § 16. Thrasybulus occupies 
Peiraeus. Death of Critias. § 17. Deposition of the Thirty, and Establishment of the 
Ten. Return of Lysander to Athens, and Arrival of Pausanias. § IS. Peace with Thrasy- 
bulus, and Evacuation of Attica by the Peloponnesians. § 19. Restoration of the Democ- 
racy. § 20. Archonsliip of Euclides. Reduction of Eleusis. 



§ 1. The defeat of ^gospotami, which took place about September, 
405 B. c, was announced at Peiraeus in the night, by the arrival of the 
Paralus. " On that night," says Xenophon, " no man slept." The dis- 
aster, indeed, was as sudden and as authentic as it was vast and irre- 
trievable. The proceedings of the dejected assembly which met on the 
44 



346 HISTORY OF GREECE. IChap. XXXIIl 

following day at once showed that the remaining struggle "was one for 
bare existence. In order to make the best preparations for a siege, it was 
resolved to block up two of the three ports of Athens, — a plain confession 
that maritime supremacy, the sole basis of her power, had departed from 
her. 

§ 2. Lysander, secure of an easy triumph, was in no haste to gather it by 
force. The command of the Euxine enabled him to control the supplies of 
Athens ; and, sooner or later, a few weeks of famine must decide her fall. 
With the view of hastening the catastrophe, he compelled the garrisons of 
all the towns which surrendered to proceed to the capital. The question 
was not one of arms, but of hunger ; and an additional garrison, so far 
from adding to her strength, would complete her weakness. A strong 
proof of the insecure foundation of her power ! A naval defeat in a 
remote quarter had not only deprived her of empire, but was about to 
render her in turn a captive and a subject. 

Lysander now sailed forth to take possession of the Athenian towns, 
which fell one after another into his power as soon as he appeared before 
them. In all a new form of government was established, consisting of an 
oligarchy of ten of the citizens, called a decarchy, under a Spartan har- 
most. Chalcedon, Byzantium, Mytilene, surrendered to Lysander him- 
self; whilst Eteonicus was despatched to occupy and revolutionize the 
Athenian towns in Thrace. Amidst the general defection, Samos alone 
remained faithful to Athens. All her other dependencies at once yielded 
to the Lacedtemonians ; whilst her cleruchs were forced to abandon their 
possessions and return home. In many places, and especially in Thasos, 
these revolutions were attended with violence and bloodshed. 

§ 3. The situation of Athens was now more desperate even than when 
Xerxes was advancing against her with his countless host. The juncture 
demanded the hearty co-operation of all her citizens ; and a general 
amnesty was proposed and carried for the purpose of releasing all debtors, 
accused persons, and state prisoners, except a few of the more desperate 
criminals and homicides. The citizens were then assembled in the 
Acropolis, and swore a solemn oath of mutual forgiveness and liarmony. 

About November Lysander made his appearance at JEgmx, with an 
overwhelming fleet of one hundred and fifty triremes, and proceeded to de- 
vastate Salamis and blockade Peirgeus. At the same time the whole Pelo- 
ponnesian army was marched into Attica, and encamped in the precincts of 
the Academia, at the very gates of Athens.* Famine soon began to be 
felt within the walls. Yet the Athenians did not abate of their pretensions. 
In their proposals for a capitulation, they demanded the preservation of 
their long walls, and of the port of Peirgeus. But the Spartan Ephors, to 

* The words of Xenophon are npits ri]v irokiv ia-TparoTvehevaev iv rfj ' AKa5;j/iig, t^ 
Kdkovfifva yvjivaala. It was about a mile north of the city. — Ed. 



B. C 404.] CAPITULATION OF ATHENS. 347 

whom the Athenian envoys had been referred by King Agis, refused to 
listen to such terms, and insisted on the demoHtion of the long walls for 
the space of ten stadia at least. The spirit of the people, however, was 
still so unsubdued — though some of them were actually dying of hunger — 
that the senator Archestratus was imprisoned for proposing to accept the 
terms offered by the Ephors ; and on the motion of Cleophon, it was for- 
bidden to make any such proposal in future. 

§ 4. Theramenes, formerly one of the Four Hundred, now offered to 
proceed to Lysander for the purpose of learning his real intentions with 
regard to the fate of Athens ; and as he pretended that his personal con- 
nections would aflPord him great facilities in such an undt'rtaking, his offer 
was accepted. After wasting three months with Lysandei", — three months 
of teri'ible suffering to the Athenians, — he said that Lysander had then 
informed him for the first time that the Ephors alone had power to treat. 
The only construction that can be put on this conduct of Theramenes is, 
that he designed to reduce the Athenians to the last necessity, so that they 
should be compelled to purchase peace at any price. If such was his 
object he completely succeeded. Wlien he returned to Athens the famine 
had become so dreadful, that he was immediately sent back to conclude a 
peace on whatever terms he could. In the debate which ensued at Sparta, 
the Thebans, the Corinthians, and others of the more bitter enemies of 
Athens, urged the very extinction of her name and the sale of her whole 
population into slavery. But this proposition was resolutely opposed by 
the Lacedaimonians, who declared, with great appearance of magnanimity, 
though probably with a view to their own interest in converting Athens 
into a useful dependency, that they would never consent to enslave or an- 
nihilate a city which had rendered such eminent services to Greece. The 
terms which the Ephors dictated, and which the Athenians were in no 
condition to refuse, were, that the long walls and the fortifications of 
Peir^us should be demolished ; that the Athenians should give up all their 
foreign possessions, and confine themselves to their own territory ; that 
they should surrender all their ships of war ; that they should readmit all 
their exiles ; and that they should become allies of Sparta. As Thera- 
menes re-entered Athens, bearing m his hand the roll, or scytale, which 
contained these terms, he was pressed upon by an anxious and haggard 
crowd, who, heedless of the terms, gave loud vent to their joy that peace 
was at length concluded. And though there was still a small minority for 
holding out, the vote for accepting the conditions was carried, and notified 
to Lysander. 

§ 5. It was about the middle or end of March, b. c. 404, that Lysander 
sailed into Peirasus, and took formal possession of Athens ; the war, in 
singular conformity with the prophecies current at the beginning of it, 
having lasted for a period of thrice nine, or twenty-seven years. The 
Lacedaemonian fleet and army remained in possession of the city till the 



348 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIU 

Conditions of its capitulation had been executed. Lysander carried away 
all the Athenian triremes except twelve, destroyed the naval arsenals, and 
burned the ships on the stocks. The insolence of the victors added anoth- 
er blow to the feelings of the conquered. The work of destruction, at 
which Lysander presided, was converted into a sort of festival. Female 
flute-players and wreathed dancers inaugurated the demolition of the strong 
and proud bulwarks of Athens ; and as the massive walls fell piece by 
piece, exclamations arose from the ranks of the Peloponnesians that free- 
dom had at length begun to dawn upon Greece. The solidity of the works 
rendered the task of demolition a laborious one. After some little prog- 
ress had been made in it, Lysander withdrew with his fleet to pj-osecute 
the siege of Samos. 

Thus fell imperial Athens, in the seventy-third year after the formation 
of the Confederacy of Delos, the origin of her subsequent empire. Dur- 
ing that interval she had doubtless committed many mistakes and much 
injustice ; had uniformly, perhaps, overrated the real foundations of her 
strength, and frequently employed unjustifiable means in order to support 
it. But, on the other hand, it must be recollected that in that brief career 
she had risen by her genius and her valor from the condition of a small 
and subordinate city to be the leading power in Greece ; that in the first 
instance empire had not been sought by her ambition, but laid at her feet, 
and in a manner thrust upon her ; that it had been accepted, and success- 
fully employed, for the most noble of human purposes, and to avert an 
overwhelming deluge of barbarism ; and that Greece, and more particu- 
larly Athens herself, had been thus enabled to become the mother of re- 
finement, the nurse of literature and art, and the founder of European 
civilization. 

§ 6. The fall of Athens brought back a host of exiles, all of them the 
enemies of her democratical constitution. Of these the most distinguished 
was Critias, a man of wealth and family, the uncle of Plato and once the 
intimate friend of Socrates, distinguished both for his hterary and political 
talents, but of unmeasured ambition and unscrupulous conscience. Critias 
and his companions soon found a party Avith which they could co-operate. 
A large portion of the senators were favorable to the establishment of an 
oligarchy ; of which Theramenes had already laid the foundation during 
his residence with Lysander. Scarcely was the city surrendered, when 
this faction began to organize its plans. Tlie political clubs met and named 
a committee of five, who, in compliment to the Laced jemonians, were called 
Ephors. Their first step was to seize the leaders of the democratical par- 
ty, whom they accused of a design to overturn the peace. Cleophon had 
already fallen, on an accusation of neglect of military duty, but in reality 
from his perseverance in opposing the surrender of Athens. The way 
being thus prepared, Critias and Theramenes invited Lysander from Sa- 
tnos, in order that his presence might secure the success of the moyenieHt* 



B. C. 404.] THE THIRTY TYRANTS. 349 

It was then proposed in the assembly, that a committee of thirty should 
be named to draw up laws for the future government of the city, and to 
undertake its temporary administration. Among the most prominent of 
the thirty names were those of Critias and Theramenes. The proposal 
was of cour.se carried. Lysander himself addressed the assembly, and 
contemptuously told them that they had better take thought for their per- 
sonal safety, which now lay at his mercy, than for their political constitu- 
tion. The committee thus appointed soon obtained the title of the Thirty 
Tyrants, the name by which they have become known in all subsequent 
time. 

§ 7. After completing the revolution at Athens, Lysander returned to 
Samos. Tlie island surrendered towards the end of summer, when an 
oligarchical government was established, as in the other conquered states. 
Never had Greek commander celebrated so great a triumph as that which 
adorned the return of Lysander to Sparta. He brought with him all the 
prow ornaments of the numerous ships he had taken ; he was loaded with 
golden crowns, the gifts of various cities ; and he ostentatiously displayed 
the large sum of four hundred and seventy talents, the balance which still 
remained of the sums granted by Cyrus for prosecuting the war. 

§ 8. Meanwhile, the Thirty at Athens, having named an entirely new 
Senate, and appointed fresh magistrates, proceeded to exterminate some 
of their most obnoxious opponents. In order to insure their condemnation 
the Thirty presided in person in the place formerly occupied by the Pry- 
tanes ; and the senators were obliged to deposit their voting pebbles on 
tables placed immediately before them. Frequently even this show of 
legality was dispensed with, and the accused were put to death by the 
mere order of the Thirty. But Critias, and the more violent party among 
them, still called for more blood ; and, with the view of obtaining it, pro- 
cured a Spartan garrison, under the harmost Callibius, to be installed in 
the Acropolis. Besides this force, they had an organized band of assas- 
sins at their disposal. Blood now flowed on all sides. Many of the lead- 
ing men of Athens fell, others took to flight. A still greater refinement 
of cunning and cruelty was, to implicate distinguished citizens in their 
own crimes by making them accomplices in their acts of violence. Thus, 
on one occasion, they sent for five citizens to the government house, and 
ordered them with horrible menaces to proceed to Salamis, and bring back 
as a prisoner an eminent Athenian named Leon. Socrates was one of 
the five, and again did himself immortal honor by refusing to participate 
in such an act of violence. 

■ § 9. Thus the reign of terror was completely established. In the bosom 
of the Thirty, however, there was a party, headed by Theramenes, who 
disapproved of these proceedings. Theramenes was long-sighted and 
cunning, as we have seen from his former acts, and so shifting and unstable 
in his poUtical views as to have obtained the nickname of GotlmrnuSy 



350 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXIU 

from resembling a shoe that would fit either foot. But he was not unne- 
cessarily and gratuitously cruel ; and though he had approved of the slaugh- 
ter of those citizens whom, from their former political conduct, he deemed 
dangerous and irreconcilable enemies to the new state of things, yet he 
was not disposed to sanction murder merely for the sake of obtaining the 
wealth of the victims. He was also inclined to give the new government 
a more constitutional form ; and it was at his suggestion that the Thirty 
were induced to bestow the franchise on three thousand citizens, chosen, 
however, as much as possible from their own adherents. But this show 
of liberality, as managed by the majority of the Thirty, was in reality 
only a vehicle for greater oppression towards the remainder of the citizens. 
All except the chosen three thousand were considered to be without the 
pale of the law, and might be put to death without form of trial by the 
simple fiat of the Thirty ; whilst, in order to render them incapable of re- 
sistance, they were assembled under pretence of a review, during which 
their arms were seized by a stratagem. 

§ 10. The Thirty now proceeded more unsparingly than ever. A regu- 
lar proscription took place. A list was made out of those who were to 
be slain and plundered ; and the adherents of the Thirty were permitted 
to insert in it whatever names they pleased. So little was the proscription 
of a political character, that it extended to metics (resident aliens) as well 
as to citizens ; and under the metics were included Lysias, the celebrated 
orator, and his brother, Polemarchus. Theramenes stood aloof from 
these atrocities ; and when offered the choice of a victim among the 
metics, to be destroyed and plundered for his own especial benefit, he in- 
dignantly rejected the offer. His moderation cost him his life. One day, 
as he entered the Senate-House, Critias rose and denounced him as a 
public enemy, struck his name out of the privileged three thousand, and 
ordered him to be carried off to instant death. Upon hearing these words 
Theramenes sprang for refuge to the altar in the Senate-House ; but he 
was dragged away by Satyrus, the cruel and unscrupulous head of the 
" Eleven," a body of officers who carried into execution the penal sentence 
of the law. Being conveyed to prison, he was compelled to drink the 
fatal hemlock. The constancy of his end might have adorned a better 
life. After swallowing the draught, he jerked on the floor a drop which 
remained in the cup, according to the custom of the game called cottabos, 
exclaiming, " This to the health of the gentle Critias ! " 

§ 11. Thus released from all check, the tyranny of Critias and hia 
coHeagues raged with tenfold violence. It has been affirmed by sub- 
sequent orators, that no fewer than fifteen hundred victims were put to 
death without trial by the Thirty ; and though this is probably an ex- 
aggeration, the number was undoubtedly prodigious. Measures were 
taken to repress aU intellectual culture, and to convert the government 
into one of brute force. A decree was promulgated, forbidding the teach 



B. C. 404.] DEATH OF ALCIBIADES. 351 

ing of "the art of words"; a phrase which, in its comprehensive Greek 
meaning, included logic, rhetoric, and literature in general, and was more 
particularly levelled at those ingenious and learned men who went by the 
name of " Sophists." * Socrates, the most distinguished among them, had 
commented with just severity on the enormities perpetrated by the Thirty. 
He was summoned before Critias, and prohibited in future from all con- 
versation with youths. Socrates exposed, in his usual searching style, the 
vagueness of the command, and the impossibihty of its execution ; but this 
only provoked the more the rage of the tyrants, who dismissed him with 
the hint that they were not ignorant of the censures he had passed upon 
them. 

§ 12. Alcibiades had been included by the Thirty in the list of exiles; 
but the fate which now overtook him seems to have sprung from the fears 
of the Lacedemonians, or perhaps from the personal hatred of Agis. 
After the battle of ^gospotami Alcibiades felt himself insecure on the 
Thracian Chersonese, and fled to Pharnabazus in Phrygia, not, however, 
without the loss of much of his wealth. He sohcited from the satrap a 
safe-conduct to the court of Susa, in the hope, perhaps, of playing the 
same part as Themistocles. Pharnabazus refused this request, but per- 
mitted him to live in Phrygia, and assigned him a revenue for his main 
tenance. But a scytaU, or despatch, came out from Sparta to Lysander, 
directing that Alcibiades should be put to death. Lysander communicated 
the order to Pharnabazus. The motives of the latter for carrying it into 
execution are not altogether clear. It seems probable that the demands 
of the Spartans were supported by Cyrus, who was now forming designs 
against his brother's throne, and feared perhaps that Alcibiades would 
reveal them at Susa. Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that the 
murder was undertalcen under the superintendence of the uncle and broth- 
er of Pharnabazus. They surrounded the house of Alcibiades Avith a 
band of assassins, and set it on fire. Alcibiades rushed out with drawn 
sword upon his assailants, who shrank from his attack, but who slew him 
from a distance with their javelins and arrows. Timandra, a female with 
whom he lived, performed towards his body the last offices of duty and 
affection. Thus perished miserably, in the vigor of his age, one of the 
most remarkable, but not one of the greatest, characters in Grecian 
history. Alcibiades was endowed with most of those qualities which serve 
to constitute greatness. He possessed talent, ambition, enterprise, cour- 
age, great presence of mind, and inexhaustible resources in emergencies ; 
but all these were marred and rendered pernicious, instead of profitable, to 

* The term Sophist, in the age of Socrates, generally designated the character now signi- 
fied by the word. In earlier times it was applied to those who studied wisdom and science. 
Socrates was the most formidable opponent of the Sophists of his age. The Thirty Tyrants 
classed all thinkers under this name, as Napoleon contemptuously calls those of his time 
ideologues — Ed. 



S52 HISTORY OF GREECE. fCHAP. XXXIII 

himself and to his country, by profligacy, selfishness, pride, rapacity, and 
utter want of principle. "With qualities which, pi-operly applied, might 
have rendered him the greatest benefactor of Athens, he contrived to 
attain the infamous distinction of being that citizen who had inflicted upon 
her the most sio;nal amount of damage. 

§ 13. Meantime an altered state of feeling was springing up in Greece. 
Athens had ceased to be an object of fear or jealousy, and those feelings 
began now to be directed towards Sparta. That state persisted in retain- 
ing the large amount of booty acquired by the war ; and when the The- 
bans and Corinthians sent in their claim, it was resented almost as an 
insult. Yet in the moiiument erected at Delphi in commemoration of the 
victory at -SCgospotami, Lysander had not only caused his own statue in 
bronze to be erected, but also that of each commander of the allied con- 
tingents. Lysander had risen to a height of unparalleled power. He 
was in a manner idolized. Poets showered their praises on him, and 
even altars were raised in his honor by the Asiatic Greeks. The Ephe- 
sians set up his statue in the famous temple, of their goddess Artemis; the 
Samians did the like at Olympia, and altered the name of their principal 
festival from Heraea to Lysandria. In the name of Sparta he exercised 
almost uncontrolled authority in the cities he had reduced, including 
Athens itself. But it was soon discovered that, instead of the freedom 
promised by the Spartans, only another empire had been established, whilst 
Lysander was even meditating to extort from the subject cities a yearly 
tribute of one thousand talents. And all these oppressions were rendered 
still more intolerable by the overweening pride and harshness of Lysan- 
der's demeanor. 

§ 14. Even in Sparta itself, the conduct of Lysander was beginning, to 
inspire disgust and jealousy. Pausanias, son of Plistoanax, who was now 
king with Agis, as well as the new Ephors appointed in September, b. c. 
404, disapproved of his proceedings. The Thebans and Corinthians them- 
selves were beginning to sympathize with Athens, and to regard the Thirty 
as mere instruments for supporting the Spartan dominion ; whilst Sparta 
in her turn looked upon them as the tools of Lysander's ambition. Many 
of the Athenian exiles had found refuge in Bceotia ; and one of them, 
Thrasybulus, with the aid of Ismenias and other Theban citizens, 
starting from Thebes at the head of a small band of exiles, seized the 
fortress of Phyle, in the passes of Mount Parnes and on the direct road to 
Athens. The Thirty marched out to attack Thrasybulus, at the head of 
the Lacedaemonian garrison, the three thousand enfranchised citizens, and 
all the Athenian knights. But their attack was repulsed with considerable 
loss. A timely snow-storm, by compelling the Thirty to retreat, relieved 
Thrasybulus and the exiles from a threatened blockade, and enabled him 
to obtain reinforcements which raised his little garrison to the number of 
seven hundred. In a subsequent rencontre Thrasybulus surprised at day- 



B. C. 403.| THE THIRTY DEPOSED. 353 

break a body of Spartan hoplites and Athenian horse that had been sent 
against hini ; and, after killing one hundred and twenty of the Spartans, 
carried oif a considerable store of arms and provisions to Phyle. 

§ 15. Symptoms of wavering now began to be perceptible, not only 
among the three thousand, but even among the Thirty themselves ; and 
Critias, fearful that power was slipping from his grasp, resolved to secure 
Salamis and Eleusis as places of refuge. All the Eleusinians capable of 
bearing arms were accordingly seized and carried to Athens, and their 
town occupied by adherents of the Thirty. The same was done at Salamis. 
Critias then convoked the three thousand and the knights in the Odeum, 
which he had partly filled with Lacedgemonian soldiers, and compelled 
them to pass a vote condemning the Eleusinians to death. This was done, 
as he plainly told them, in order the more thoroughly to identify their 
interests with those of the Thirty. The prisoners were immediately led 
off to execution. 

§ 16. Thrasybulus, whose forces Were now a thousand strong, incited 
probably by this enormity, and reckoning on support from the party of 
the reaction at Athens, marched from Phyle to Peiraeus, which was now 
an open town, and seized upon it without opposition. When the whole 
force of the Thirty, including the Lacedgemonians, marched on the follow- 
ing day to attack hun, he retired to the hill of Munychia, the citadel of 
Peiraeus, the only approach to which was by a steep ascent. Here he 
drew up his hoplites in files of ten deep, posting behind them his slingers 
and dartmen, whose missiles, owing to the rising ground, could be hurled 
over the heads of the foremost ranks. Against them Critias and his con- 
federates advanced in close array, his hoplites formed in a column of fifty 
deep. Thrasybulus exhorted his men to stand patiently tUl the enemy 
came within reach of the missiles. At the first discharge the assaUing 
column seemed to waver; and Thrasybulus, taking advantage of their 
confusion, charged down the hill, and completely routed them, killing 
seventy, among whom was Critias himself. 

§ 17. The partisans of the Thirty acknowledged the victory by begging 
a truce to bury their dead. The loss of their leader had thrown the 
majority into the hands of the party formerly led by Theramenes, who 
resolved to depose the Thirty and constitute a new ohgarchy of Ten. 
Some of the Thirty were re-elected into this body ; but the more violent 
colleagues of Critias were deposed, and retired for safety to Eleusis. The 
new government of the Ten sent to Sparta to sohcit further aid ; and a 
similar appUcation was made at the same time from the section of the 
Thirty at Eleusis. Their request was complied with ; and Lysander once 
more entered Athens at the head of a Lacedgemonian force, whilst his 
brother Libys blockaded Peireeus with forty triremes. Fortunately, how- 
ever, the jealousy of the Lacedaemonians towards Lysander led them at 
this critical juncture to supersede him in the command. King Pausaniaa 
45 



354 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXm. 

was appointed to lead an army into Attica, and when he encamped in the 
Academia he was joined by Lysander and his forces. It was known at 
Athens that the views of Pausanias were unfavorable to the proceedings 
of Lysander ; and his presence ehcited a vehement reaction against the 
oligarchy, which fear had hitherto suppressed. At first, however, Pausa- 
nias made a show of attacking Thrasybulus and his adherents, and sent 
a herald to require them to disband and return to their homes. As this 
order was not obeyed, Pausanias made an attack on Peiraeus, but was 
repulsed with loss. Retiring to an eminence at a little distance, he rallied 
his forces and formed them into a deep phalanx. Thrasybulus, elated by 
his success, was rash enough to venture a combat on the plain, in which 
his troops were completely routed and driven back to Peirseus, with the 
loss of a hundred and fifty men. 

§ 18. Pausanias, content with the advantage he had gained, began to 
listen to the entreaties for an accommodation which poured in on all sides ; 
and when Thrasybulus sent to sue for peace, he granted him a truce for 
the purpose of sending envoys to Sparta. The Ten also despatched 
envoys thither, offering to submit themselves and the city to the absolute 
discretion of Sparta. The Ephors and the Lacedaemonian assembly 
referred the question to a committee of fifteen, of whom Pausanias was 
one. The decision of this board was, that the exiles in Peiraeus should 
be readmitted to Athens ; and that there should be an amnesty for all that 
had passed, except as regarded the Thirty, the Eleven, and the Ten. 
Eleusis was recognized as a distinct government, in order to serve as a 
refuge for those who felt themselves compromised at Athens. 

§ 19. When these terms were settled and sworn to, the Peloponnesians 
quitted Attica ; and Thrasybulus and the exiles, marching in solemn pro- 
cession from Peiraeus to Athens, ascended to the Acropolis and offered up 
a solemn sacrifice and thanksgiving. An assembly of the people was then 
held, and after Thrasybulus had addressed an animated reproof to the 
ohgarchical party, the democracy was unanimously restored. This impor- 
tant counter-revolution appears to have taken place in the spring of 
403 B. c. The archons, the Senate of five hundred, the public assembly, 
and the dicasteries, seem to have been reconstituted in the same form as 
before the capture of the city. All the acts of the Thirty were annulled, 
and a committee was appointed to revise the laws of Draco and Solon, and 
to exhibit their amendments at the statues of the eponymous heroes. 
These laws, as afterwards adopted by the whole body of five hundred 
nomothetae, and by the Senate, were ordered to be inscribed on the walls 
of the Poecile Stoa, on which occasion the full Ionic alphabet of twenty- 
four letters was for the first time adopted in public acts, though it had 
long been in private use. The old Attic alphabet, of sixteen or eighteen 
letters, had been previously employed in public documents. 

§ 20. Thus was terminated, after a sway of eight months, the despotism 



B. C. 403.] 



RESTORATION OF THE DEMOCRACY. 



355 



of the Thirty. The year which contained their rule was not named after 
the archon, but was termed " the year of anarchy." The first archon 
drawn after their fall was Eucleides, who gave his name to a year 
ever afterwards memorable among the Athenians. The democracy, 
though smarting under recent wrongs, behaved with great moderation; 
a circumstance, however, which may in some degree be accounted for by 
the facts, that three thousand of the more influential citizens had been 
more or less implicated in the proceedings of the Thirty, and that the 
number of those entitled to the franchise was now reduced by its being 
restricted to such only as were born of an Athenian mother as well as 
father. Eleusis was soon afterwards brought back into community with 
Athens. The only reward of Thrasybulus and his party were wreaths of 
olive, and one thousand drachmae given for a common sacrifice. 

But though Athens thus obtained internal peace, she was left a mere 
shadow of her former self. Her fortifications, her fleet, her revenues, and 
the empire founded on them, had vanished ; and her history henceforwards 
consists of struggles, not to rule over others, but to maintain her own 
independence. 




Clio, the Mase of Histoiy. 



356 



HISTOKY OJF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXIV 




The Erechtheum restored, viewed from the southwest angle. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

A.THENS, AND ATHENIAN AN£> GRECIAN ART DURING THE PERIOD OF 

HER EMPIRE. 

i 1. Situation of Athens. ^2. Origin and Progress of the Ancient City. §3. Extent of the 
New City. Peirgeus and the Ports. § 4. General Appearance of Athens. Population. 
§ 5. Periods and General Character of Attic Art. § 6. Sculptors of the First Period. 
Ageladas, Onatas, and others. ^ 7. Second Period. Pheidias. § 8. Polycletns and 
Myron. § 9. Painting. Polygnotus. § 10. Apollodorus, Zeiixis, and Parrhasius. 
§ 11. Architecture. Monuments of the Age of Cimon. The Temple of Nik^ Apteros, 
the Theseum, and the Pcecil^ Stoa. § 12. The Acropolis and its Monuments. The 
Propytea. § 13. The Parthenon. § 14. Statues of Athena. § 15. The Erechtheum. 
§ 16. Monuments in the Asty. The Dionysiac Theati'e. The Odeum of Pericles. The 
Areopagiis. The Pnyx. The Agora and Cerameicus. § 17. Monuments out of Attica. 
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. § 18. The Temple of Apollo near Phigalia. 



§ 1. In the present book, we have beheld the rise of Athens from the 
condition of a second or third rate city to the headship of Greece : we are 
now to contemplate her triumphs in the peaceful but not less glorious pur- 
suits of art, and to behold her establishing an empire of taste and genius, 
not only over her own nation and age, but over the most civilized portion 
of the world throughout all time. 

First of all, however, it is necessary to give a brief description of 



Chap. XXXIV.] DESCRIPTION OF ATHENS. 357 

Athens itseF, the repository, as it were, in which the most previous 
treasures of art were preserved. Athens is situated about five miles from 
the sea-coast, in the central plain of Attica, which is inclosed by mountains 
on every side except the southwest, where it is open to the sea. In the 
southern part of the plain rise several eminences. Of these the most 
prominent is a lofty insulated mountain, with a conical j)eaked summit, 
now called the Hill of St. George, and which bore in ancient times the 
name of Lycabettus. This mountain, which was not included within the 
ancient walls, lies to the northeast of Athens, and forms the most striking 
feature in the environs of the city. It is to Athens what Vesuvius is to 
Naples, or Arthur's Seat \o Edinburgh. Southwest of Lycabettus there 
are four hills of moderate height, all of which formed part of the city. Of 
these the nearest to Lycabettus, and at the distance of a mile from the 
latter, was the Acrojiolis, or citadel of Athens, a square craggy rock rising 
abruptly about a hundred and fifty feet, with a flat summit* of about 
eleven hundred feet long from east to west, by four hundred and fifty 
broad from north to south. Immediately west of the Acropolis is a second 
hill, of irregular form, the Areopagus. To the southwest there rises a 
third hill, the Pnyx, on which the assemblies of the citizens were held ; 
and to the south of the latter is a fourth hill, known as the Museum. On 
the eastern and western sides of the city there run two small streams, 
which are nearly exhausted before they reach the sea, by the heats of 
summer and by the channels for artificial irrigation. That on the east is 
the nissus, which flowed through the southern quarter of the city : that on 
the west is the Cephissus. South of the city was seen the Saronic Gulf, 
with the harbors of Athens. The ground on which Athens stands is a 
bed of hard limestone rock, which the ingenuity of the inhabitants con- 
verted to architectural pui'poses, by hewing it into walls, levelling it into 
pavements, and forming it into steps, seats, cisterns, and other objects of 
utility or ornament. 

The noblest description of Athens is given by Milton in his Paradise 
Regained : — 

" Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, 
Westward; much nearer by southwest behold, 
Where on the Algean shore a city stands, 
Built nobly; pure the air, and light the soil; 
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence, native to famous wits, 
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, 
City or suburban, studious walks and shades. 
See there the olive grove of Academe, 
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird 
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long; 
There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound 

* The summit is three hundred feet above the town, and three hundred and fifty above 
the surrounding plain. — Ed. 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 

Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites 

To studious musing : there Ilissus rolls 

His whispering stream : within the walls then view 

The schools of ancient sages; his who bred 

Great Alexander to snlidue the world, 

Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next." 



[Chap. XXXIV 




Plan of Athens. 



1. Pnyx, Ecclesia. 

2. Theseum. 

3. Theatre of Dionyaus. 



4. Odeum of Pericles. 

5. Temple of the Olympian 

Zeus. 



§ 2. Athens is said to have derived its name from the prominence given 
to the worship of Athena by its King Erechtheus. The inhabitants were 
previously called Cranai and Cecropidte, from Cecrops, who, according 
to tradition, was the original founder of the city. This at first occupied 
only the hill or rock which afterwards became the Acropolis ; but gradu- 
ally the buildings began to spread over the ground at the southern foot of 
this hill. It was not till the time of Peisistratus and his sons (b. c. 560 — 
514) that the city began to assume any degree of splendor. The most re- 
markable building of these despots was the gigantic temple of the Olympian 
Zeus, which, however, was not finished till many centuries later. In b. c. 
500, the theatre of Dionysus was commenced on the southeastern slope of 
the Acropolis, but was not completed till B. c. 340 ; though it must have 
been used for the representation of plays long before that period. 

§ 3. Xerxes reduced the ancient city almost to a heap of ashes. After 
the departure of the Persians, its reconstruction on a much larger scale 
was commenced under the superintendence of Themistocles, whose first 
care was to provide for its safety by the erection of walls. The Acropolis 
now formed the centre of the city, round which the new walls described 



Chap. XXXIV.] description of Athens. 359 

an irregular circle of about sixty stadia, or seven and a half miles in 
circumference. The new walls were built in great haste, in consequence 
of the attempts of the Spartans to interrupt their progress ; but though 
this occasioned great irregularity in their structure, they were nevertheless 
firm and solid. The space thus inclosed formed the Asty,* or city, 
properly so called. But the views of Themistocles were not confined to 
the mere defence of Athens : he contemplated making her a great naval 
power, and for this purpose adequate docks and arsenals were required. 
Previously the Athenians had used as their only harbor the open road- 
stead of Phdlerum, on the eastern side of the Phaleric bay, where the sea- 
shore is nearest to Athens. But Themistocles transferred the naval 
station of the Athenians to the peninsula of Peirseus, which is distant 
about five miles from Athens, and contains three natural harbors, — a 
large one on the western side, called simply Peirceus or The Harbor, and 
two smaller ones on the eastern side, called respectively Zea and Muny- 
chia, the latter being nearest to the city. Themistocles seems to have 
anticipated from the first that the port-town would speedily become as 
large a place as the Asty or city itself; for the walls which he buUt 
around the peninsula of Peirseus were of the same circumference as those 
ot Athens, and were fourteen or fifteen feet thick. It was not, however, 
till the time of Pericles that Peireeus was regularly laid out as a town by 
the architect Hippodamus of Miletus. It was also in the administration 
and by the advice of Pericles, but in pursuance of the policy of Themis- 
tocles, that the walls were built which connected Athens with her ports. 
These were at first the outer or northern Long Wall, which ran from Athens 
to Peiraeus, and the Phaleric wall, connecting the city with Phalerum. 
These were commenced in B. c. 457, and finished in the following year. 
It was soon found, however, that the space thus inclosed was too vast to 
be easily defended ; and as the port of Phalerum was small and insignifi- 
cant in comparison with the Peirgeus, and soon ceased to be used by the 
Athenian ships of war, its wall was abandoned and probably allowed to 
fall into decay. Its place was supplied by another Long Wall, which was 
built parallel to the first at a distance of only five hundred and fifty feet, 
thus rendering both capable of being defended by the same body of men. 
The magnitude of these walls may be estimated from the fact, that the 
foundations of the northern one, which may still be traced, are about 
twelve feet thick, and formed of large quadrangular blocks of stone. 
Their height in all probability was not less than sixty feet. In process ol 
time the space between the two Long Walls was occupied on each side by 
houses. 

§ 4. It will be seen from the preceding description, that Athens, in ita 
larger acceptation, and including its port, consisted of two circular cities, 

* To "AoTu. 



360 HISTOBT OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXIV 

the Asty and Peirasus, each of about seven and a half miles in circumfer- 
ence, and joined together by a broad street of between four and five miles 
long. Its first appearance was by no means agreeable or striking. The 
streets were narrow and crooked, and the meanness of the private houses 
formed a strong contrast to the magnificence of the public buUdings. 




Athens and its Port Towns. 

A. The Asty. GG. The Phaleric WaU. 

B. Peirjeus. H. Harbor of Peirseus. 

C. Munychia, citadel of Peirseus. I. Phaleric Bay. 

D. Phalerum. K. Harbor of Munychia. 
EB, PF. The Long Walls : EE, the Northern L Harbor of Zea. 

Long Wall ; EE, the Southern WaU. 

None of the houses were more than one story high, which often projected 
over the street. They were for the most part constructed either of a 
framework of wood, or of unburnt bricks dried in the open air.. The front 
towards the street rarely had any windows, and was usually nothing but a 
curtain wall covered with a coating of plaster. It was not till the Mace- 
donian period, when public spirit had decayed, that the Athenians, nO) 
longer satisfied with participating in the grandeur of the state, began to 
erect handsome private houses. Athens was badly drained, and scantily 
supplied with water. It was not lighted, and very few of the streets were 
paved. Little care was taken to cleanse the city ; and it appears to have 
been as dirty as the filthiest town of Southern Europe m the present 
day.* 



* Dicsearchus, a contemporary of Aristotle, in the fragments of his work on the " Life of 
Greece," describes the city as "ill-furnished with water and irregular on account of its 
antiquity ; the houses, generally mean and inconvenient ; so that a stranger would at first 
hardly believe this to be the celebrated city of Athens. But when he should behold the 



Chap. XXXIV.] BEST PERIOD OF ATHENIAN ART. 361 

The population of Athens cannot be accurately ascertained. The 
population of the whole of Attica probably exceeded half a million, of 
whom, however, nearly four fifths were slaves, and half the remainder 
metics, or resident aliens. The number of citizens — native males above 
the age of twenty, enjoying the franchise — was twenty or twenty-one 
thousand. The 2wpulation resident in Athens itself has been variously 
estimated at from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and ninety-two 
thousand souls. 

§ 5. Such was the outward and material form of that city, which during 
the brief period comprised in our present book reached the highest pitch 
of military, artistic, and literary glory. The progress of the first has been 
already traced, and it is to the last two subjects that we are now to devote 
our attention. The whole period contemplated embraces about eighty years, 
the middle portion of which, or that comprised under the ascendency of 
Pericles, exhibits Athenian art in its highest state of perfection, and is 
therefore by way of excellence commonly designated as the age of 
Pericles. The generation which preceded, and that which followed, the 
time of that statesman, also exhibit a high degree of excellence ; but in 
the former perfection had not yet attained its full development, and in the 
latter we already begin to observe traces of incipient decline. The prog- 
ress both of poetry and of the plastic arts during this epoch is strikingly 
similar. The great principle that pervaded all was a lively and truthful 
imitation of nature, but nature of an ideal and elevated stamp. Epic 
poetry and the ode give place to a more accurate and striking rendering 
of nature by means of dramatic representations ; whilst sculpture presents 
us not only with more graceful ^orms, but with more of dramatic action in 
the arrangement of its groups. a this latter respect, however, the age 
was probably excelled by the succeeding one of Scopas and Praxiteles. 
The process by which Athenian genius freed itself from the trammels of 
ancient stifihess, is as visible in the tragedies of -^schylus, Sophocles, and 

superb theatre ; the costly temple of Athena, called the Parthenon, overhanging the theatre ; 
the temple of Olympian Zeus, which, though unfinished, fills the beholder with amazement 
by the magnificence of its plan ; the three Gymnasia, the Academy, the Lyceum, and the 
Cynosarges, all of them shaded with trees and embellished with grassy lawns ; having wit- 
nessed the haunts of the philosophers, and the various schools, and the festive scenes by 
which the cares of life are cheated of their prey, — he would have another impression, and 
believe that this was in very truth the famous city of Athens. The hospitalities of the 
citizens make the staj^ of the stranger agreeable. The city abounds with supplies for every 
want, and the means of gratifying every desire. The neighboring towns are but suburbs of 
Athens. The inhabitants are prompt to know every artist; and though among the Attics 
there are busybodies and gossips, who pass their time in spying out the way of life of 
strangers, yet the genuine Athenians are magnanimous, simple in manners, trusty friends, 
and accomplished critics of the arts. In short, as much as other cities excel the country^n 
the means of enjoyment, so much does Athens surpass all other cities. As Lysippus says,— 

* Hast not seen Athens, then thou art a log; 
Hast seen, and not been charmed, thou art an ass.' " — Ed. 
46 



362 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXIV 

Euripides, as in the productions of the great masters of the plastic arts 
during the same period. In the dramas of -^schylus majesty and dignity 
are not unmixed with a rigid and archaic simplicity, which also mark? the 
works of the contemporary sculptors. In the next generation, during the 
time of Pericles, we find this characteristic giving place to the perfection 
of grace and sublimity united, as in the tragedies of Sophocles and in the 
statues of Pheidias. Art could not be carried higher. In the next step 
we find equal truthfulness and grace ; but the former had lost its ideal 
and elevated character, and the latter was beginning to degenerate into 
over-refinement and affectation. Such are the examples offered by the 
plays of Euripides, and by the sculptures of Myron and Polycletus. In 
like manner, with regard tb architecture, the Parthenon, erected in the 
time of Pericles, presents the most exquisite example of the Doric style 
in the happiest medium between antique heaviness and the slender weak- 
ness of later monuments. Painting also, in the hands of Polygnotus, at- 
tained its highest excellence in the grace and majesty of single figures. 
But painting is a complicated art ; and the mechanical improvements in 
perspective, light and shade, grouping, and composition in general, after- 
wards introduced by ApoUodorus and Zeuxis, and still later by Apelles, 
undoubtedly brought the art to a greater degree of perfection. 

§ 6. Among the artists of this period the sculptors stand out prominently. 
In general the eminent sculptors of this period also possessed not only a 
theoretical knowledge, but frequently great practical skill in the sister arts 
of painting and architecture. 

One of the earliest sculptors of note was Ageladas of Argos, whose 
fame at present chiefly rests on the circumstance of his having been the 
master of Pheidias, Myron, and Polycletus. He was probably born about 
B. c. 540, so that he must have been an old man when Pheidias became 
his pupil. Another distinguished statuary and painter among the immedi- 
ate predecessors of Pheidias was Onatas, an ^ginetan, who flourished 
down to the year b. c. 460. His merit as a painter appears from the fact 
that he was employed, in conjunction with Polygnotus, to decorate with 
paintings a temple at Platsea. 

Contemporary with these elder masters of the best period of Greek 
art were Hegias, Canachus, Calamis, and others. The somewhat stiff and 
archaic style which distinguished their productions from those of Pheidias 
and his school was preserved even by some artists who flourished at the 
same time with Pheidias ; as, for instance, by Praxias and Androsthenes, 
who executed some of the statuary w^hich adorned the temple of Delphi. 

§ 7. Pheidias is the head of the new school. He was born about 490 
B. c, began to flourish about 460, and died just before the breaking out 
of the Peloponnesian war in 432. He seems to have belonged to a family 
of artists, and to have first turned his attention towards painting. He was 
the pupil, as we have said, of Ageladas, and probably of Hegias ; and 



Chap. XXXIV.] PHEIDIAS, POLYCLETUS, AND MYRON. 363 

his great abilities were developed in executing or superintending the works 
of art with which Athens was adorned during the administration of Peri- 
cles. He went to Elis about b. c. 437, where he executed his famous 
statue of the Olympian Zeus. He returned to Athens about 434, and 
shortly afterwards fell a victim to the jealousy against his friend and pat- 
ron, Pericles, which was then at its height ; and though he was acquitted 
on the charge of peculation, he was condemned on that of impiety, for 
having introduced his own likeness, as well as that of Pericles, among 
the figures in the battle of the Amazons, sculptured on the shield of Athe- 
na. He was in consequence thrown into prison, where he shortly after- 
wards died. 

The chief characteristic of the works of Pheidias is ideal beauty of the 
sublimest order, especially in the representation of divinities and their 
worship. He entirely emancipated himself from the stiffness which had 
hitherto marked the archaic school, but without degenerating into that al- 
most meretricious grace which began to corrupt art in the hands of some 
of his successors. His renderings of nature had nothing exaggerated oi 
distorted : all was marked by a noble dignity and repose. We shall speak 
of his works when we come to describe the buildings which contained them. 

§ 8. Among the most renowned sculptors contemporary with Pheidias 
were Polycletus and Myron. There were at least two sculptors of the 
name of Polycletus ; but it is the elder one of whom we here speak, and 
who was the more famous. He seems to have been born at Sicyon, and 
to have become a citizen of Argos. The exact date of his birth is uncer- 
tain, but he was rather younger than Pheidias, and flourished probably 
from about 452 to 412 b. c. Of his personal history we know absolutely 
nothing. The art of Polycletus was not of so ideal and elevated a char- 
acter as that of Pheidias. The latter excelled in statues of gods, Polycle- 
tus in those of men ; but in these he reached so great a pitch of excellence, 
that on one occasion, when several artists competed in the statue of an 
Amazon, he was adjudged to have carried away the palm from Pheidias. 
The greatest of his works was the ivory and gold statue of Hera in her 
temple between Argos and Mycenae, which always remained the ideal 
model of the queen of the gods, as Pheidias's statue at Olympia was con- 
sidered the most perfect image of the king of heaven. 

Myron, also a contemporary and fellow-pupil of Pheidias, was a native 
of Eleutherge, a town on the borders of Attica and Bceotia. He seems 
to have been younger than Pheidias, and was probably longer in attaining 
excellence, since he flourished about the beginning of the Peloponnesian 
war. He excelled in representing the most difficult, and even transient, 
postures of the body, and his works were marked by great variety and 
versatility. He appears to have been the first eminent artist who devoted 
much attention to the figures of animals, and one of his statues most cele- 
brated in antiquity was that of a cow. It was represented as lowing, and 



364 



HISTORY OF GREECE. fCnAP. XXXIV 



stood on a marble base in the centre of one of the largest open places in 
Athens, where it was still to be seen in the time of Cicero, but was subse- 
quently removed to Rome. This, as well as most of his other works, was 
in bronze. He excelled in representing youthful athlete ; and a celebrated 
statue of his, of which several copies are still extant, was the discobolus, 
or quoit-player. 

§ 9. The art of painting was developed later than that of sculpture, of 
which it seems to have been the offspring, and in its earlier period to have 
partaken very closely of the statuesque character. The ancient Greek 
paintings were either in water-colors or in wax : oil-colors appear to have 
been unknown. We have already given some account of the rudiments 
of the art among the Greeks.* The first Grecian painter of any great 
renown was PolygnStus, who was contemporary with Pheidias, though 
probably somewhat older. He was a native of Thasos, whence he was, 
in all probability, brought by his friend and patron Cimon, when he subju- 
gated that island in B. c. 463. At that period he must at least have been 
old enough to have earned the celebrity which entitled him to Cimon's 
patronage. He subsequently became naturalized at Athens, where he 
probably died about the year 426 b. c. His chief works in Athens were 
executed in adorning those buildings which were erected in the time of 
Cimon ; as the temple of Theseus, and the Poecile Stoa, or Painted Colon- 
nade. His paintings were essentially statuesque, — the representation by 
means of colors on a flat surface of figures similar to those of the sculptor. 
But the improvements which he introduced on the works of his predeces- 
sors were very marked and striking, and form an epoch in the art. He 
first depicted the open mouth, so as to show the teeth, and varied the ex- 
pression of the countenance from its ancient stiffness. He excelled in 
representing female beauty and complexion, and introduced graceful, flow- 
ing draperies, in place of the hard, stiff lines by which they had been pre- 
viously depicted. He excelled in accuracy of drawing, and in the noble- 
ness, grace, and beauty of his figures, which were not mere transcripts 
from nature, but had an ideal and elevated character. His masterpieces 
were executed in the Lesche (inclosed court or hall for conversation) of 
the Cnidians at Delphi, the subjects of which were taken from the cycle 
of epic poetry. In these there seems to have been no attempt at perspec- 
tive, and names were affixed to the different figures. 

§ 10. Painting reached a further stage of excellence in the hands of 
Apollodorus, Zeuxis, and Parrhasius, the only other artists whom we need 
notice dui-ing this period. Apollodorus was a native of Athens, and first 
directed attention to the effect of light and shade in painting, thus creating 
another epoch in the art. His immediate successors, or rather contempo- 
raries, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, brought the art to a still greater degree of 

* See p. 141. 



Chap. XXXIV.] ZEUXIS AND PARRHASIUS. 365 

perfection. Neither the place nor date of the birth of Zeuxis can be accu- 
rately ascertained, though he was probably born about 455 b. c., since 
thirty years after that date we find him practising his art with great success 
at Athens. He was patronized by Archelaiis, king of Macedonia, and 
spent some time at his court. He must also have visited Magna Grgecia, 
as he painted his celebrated picture of Helen for the city of Croton. He 
acquired great wealth by his pencil, and was very ostentatious in displaying 
it. He appeared at Olyrapia in a magnificent robe, having his name em- 
broidered in letters of gold ; and the same vanity is also displayed in the 
anecdote, that, after he had reached the summit of his fame, he no longer 
sold, but ga\c away, his pictures, as being above all imce. With regard 
to his st}'le of art, single figures were his favorite subjects. He could de- 
pict gods or heroes with sufficient majesty, but he particularly excelled in 
painting the softer graces of female beauty. In one important respect he 
appears to have degenerated from the style of Polygnotus, his idealism 
being rather that of form than of character and expression. Thus his 
style is analogous to that of Euripides in tragedy. He was a great master 
of color, and his paintings were sometimes so accurate and lifeHke as to 
amount to illusion. This is exempUfied in the story told of him and Par- 
rhasius. As a trial of skill, these artists painted two pictures. That of 
Zeuxis represented a bunch of grapes, and was so naturally executed that 
the birds came and pecked at it. After this proof, Zeuxis, confident of 
success, called upon his rival to draw aside the curtain which concealed 
his picture. But the painting of Parrhasius was the curtain itself, and 
Zeuxis was now obliged to acknowledge himself vanquished ; for, though 
he had deceived birds, Parrhasius had deceived the author of the deception. 
Whatever may be the historical value of this tale, it at least shows the 
high reputation which both artists had acquired for the natural represen- 
tation of objects. But many of the pictures of Zeuxis also displayed 
great dramatic power. He worked very slowly and carefully, and he is 
said to have replied to somebody who blamed him for his slowness, " It is 
true I take a long time to paint, but then I paint works to last a long 
time." His masterj)iece was the picture of Helen, abeady mentioned. 

Parrhasius was a native of Ephesus, but his art was chiefiy exercised at 
Athens, where he was presented with the right of citizenship. His date 
cannot be accurately ascertained, but he was probably rather younger 
than his contemporary, Zeuxis, and it is certain that he enjoyed a liigh 
reputation before the death of Socrates. The style and degree of excel- 
lence atta,ined by Parrhasius appear to have been much the same as those 
of Zeuxis. He was particularly celebrated for the accuracy of his draw- 
ing, and the excellent proportions of his figures. For these he established 
a canon, as Pheidias had done in sculpture for gods, and Polycletus for 
the human figure ; whence Quintilian calls him the legislator of his art. 
His vanity seems to have been as remarkable as that of Zeuxis. Among 



366 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIV. 

the most celebrated of his works was a portrait of tlie personified Athe- 
nian Demos, which is said to have miraculously expressed even the most 
contradictory qualities of that many-headed personage. 

The excellence attained during this period by the great masters in the 
higher walks of sculpture and painting was, as may be weU supposed, not 
without its influence on the lower grades of art. This is particularly 
visible in the ancient painted vases, which have been preserved to us in 
such numbers, the paintings on which, though of course the productions of 
an infei'ior class of artists, show a marked improvement, both in design 
and execution, after the time of Polygnotus. 

§ 11. Having thus taken a brief survey of the progress of sculpture and 
painting in the hands of the most eminent masters, we now turn to con- 
template some of the chief buildings which they were employed to adorn. 

The first public monuments that arose after the Persian wars were 
erected under the auspices of Cimon, who was, like Pericles, a lover and 
patron of the arts. The pi'incipal of these were the small Ionic temple of 
Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory), the Theseum, or temple of Theseus, 
and the Poecile Stoa. The temple of Nike Apteros was only twenty- 
seven feet in length by eighteen in breadth, and was erected on the Acrop- 
ohs in commemoration of Cimon's victory at the Eurymedon. It was 
still standing in the year 1676, but it was subsequently overthrown by 
the Turks in order to form a battery. Its remains were discovered in 
1835, and it was rebuilt with the original materials. A view of it is 
given on p. 203, and its position on the Acropolis, on one side of the 
Propylaea, is seen in the drawings on pp. 248 and 255. Four slabs of its 
sculptured frieze, found in a neighboring wall, are now in the British 
Museum. 

The Theseum is situated on a height to the north of the Areopagus, 
and was built to receive the bones of Theseus, which Cimon brought from 
Scyros in B. c. 469. It was probably finished about 465, and is the best 
preserved of all the monuments of ancient Athens. (See drawing on p. 
224.) It was at once a tomb and temple, and possessed the privileges of 
an asylum. It is of the Doric order, one hundred and four feet in length 
by forty-five feet broad, and surrounded with columns, of which there are 
six at each front and thirteen at the sides, reckoning those at the angles 
twice. The cella is forty feet in length. It is not therefore by its size, 
but by its symmetry, that it impresses the beholder. The eastern front 
was the principal one, since all its metopes, together with the four ad- 
joining ones on either side, are sculptured, whilst all the rest are plain. 
The sculptures, of which the subjects are the exploits of Hercules and 
Theseus, have sustained great injury, though the temple itself is nearly 
perfect. The figures in the pediments have entirely disappeared, and the 
metopes and frieze have been greatly mutilated. The relief is bold and 
ealient, and the sculptures, both of the metopes and friezes, were painted, 



Chap. XXXIV.] 



THE PROPYL^A. 



367 



and still preserve remains of the colors. There are casts from some of 
the finest portions of them in the British Museum. The style exhibits a 
striking advance on that of the -^ginetan marbles, and forms a connecting 
link between them and the sculptures of the Parthenon. The Pcecile Stoa, 
which ran along one side of the Agora, or market-place, was a long colon- 
nade formed by columns on one side and a wall on the other, against 
which were placed the paintings, which were on panels.* 

§ 12. But it was the Acropolis which was the chief centre of the archi- 
tectural splendor of Athens. After the Persian wars the Acropolis had 
ceased to be inhabited, and was appropriated to the worship of Athena, 
and the other guardian deities of the city. It was covered with the 
temples of gods and heroes ; and thus its platform presented not only a 
sanctuary, but a museum, containing the finest productions of the architect 
and the sculptor, in which the whiteness of the marble was relieved by 




Plan of the Acropolis. 

1. Parthenon. 3. Propylsea. 

2. Erechtheum. 4. Temple of Nike Apteros. 

5. Statue of Athena Proniachus. 

brilliant colors, and rendered still more dazzling by the transparent clear- 
ness of the Athenian atmosphere. It was surrounded with walls, and the 
surface seems to have been divided into terraces communicating with one 
another by steps. The only approach to it was from the Agora on its 
western side. At the top of a magnificent flight of marble steps, seventy 
feet broad, stood the Propylsea,! constructed under the auspices of Peri- 
cles, and which served as a suitable entrance to the exquisite works 
within. The Propyliea were themselves one of the masterpieces of Athe- 
nian art Tliey were entirely of Pentelic marble, and covered the whole of 
the western end of the Acropolis, having a breadth of one hundred and 
sixty-eight feet. They were erected by the architect Mnesicles, at a cost 



Hence its name of Poecil^ (tiolkiXt], vatieij i!ed or painted). 



f UpoTrvXaia. 



368 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXIV 

of two thousand talents, or £ 485,500.* The central portion of them con- 
sisted of two hexastyle porticos, of which the western one faced the city, 
and the eastern one the interior of the Acropolis. Each portico consisted 
of a front of six fluted Doric columns, four feet and a half in diameter and 
nearly twenty-nine feet in height, supporting a pediment. The central 
part of the building just described was fifty-eight feet in breadth, but the 
remaining breadth of the rock at this point was covered by two wings, 
which projected twenty-six feet in front of the western portico. Each of 
these wings was in the form of a Doric temple. The northern one, or 
that on the left of a person ascending the Acropolis, was called the Pina- 
coiheca, from its walls being covered with paintings. The southern wing 
consisted only of a porch or open gallery. Immediately before its western 
front stood the little temple of JSTike Apteros already mentioned. (See 
drawing on p. 255.) 

§ 13. On passing tlu'ough the Propyl^ea all the glories of the Acropolis 
became visible. The chief building was the Parthenon,! the most ])erfect 
production of Grecian architecture. It derived its name from its being 
the temple of Athena Parthenos,J or Athena the Virgin, the invincible 
goddess of war. It was also called Hecatompedon, from its breadth of 
one hundred feet. It was built under the administration of Pericles, and 
was completed in b. c. 438. The architects were Ictimus and Callicra- 
tes ; but, as we have said, the general superintendence of the building 
was intrusted to Pheidias. The Parthenon stood on the highest part of 
the Acropolis, near its centre, and probably occupied the site of an earlier 
temple destroyed by the Persians. § It was entirely of Pentelic marble, on 
a rustic basement of ordinary limestone, and its architecture, which was of 
the Doric order, was of the purest kind. Its dimensions, taken from the 
under step of the stylobate, were about two hundred and twenty-eight feet 
in length, one hundred and one feet in breadth, and sixty-sixty feet in 
height to the top of the pediment. It consisted of a cella, surrounded by 
a peristyle, which had eight columns at either front, and seventeen at 
either side (reckoning the corner columns twice), thus containing forty 
six columns in all. These columns were six feet two inches in diameter 
at the base, and thirty-four feet in height. The cella was divided into 
two chambers of unequal size, the eastern one of which was about ninety- 
eight feet long, and the western one about forty-three feet. The ceiling of 
both these chambers was supported by rows of columns. The whole build- 
ing was adorned with the most exquisite sculptures, executed by various 

* Over $ 2,100,000. — Ed. 

f ILapBevav, i. e. House of the Virgin. 

% 'Adrjva Trapdfvos- 

^ There is no doubt on this subject at present. The limits of the original foundation are 
visible, and the addition necessary to make the foundation of the new temple, on pn en- 
larged scale, is distinctly defined. — Ed. 



Chap. XXXIV.J THE PAETHENON. 369 

artists under the direction of Pheidias. These consisted of, — 1. The sculp- 
tures in the tympana of the pediments (i. e. the inner portion of the trian- 
gular gable ends of the roof above the two porticos), each of which was 
filled with about twenty-four colossal figures. The group in the easterr 
or principal front represented the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, 
and the western the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the land oi 
Attica. An engraving of one of the figures in the pediments is given on 
p. 277. 2. The metopes between the triglyphs in the frieze of the entab- 
lature (i. e. the upper of the two portions into which the space between 
the columns and the roof is divided) were filled with sculptures in high 
relief, representing a variety of subjects relating to Athena herself, or to 
the indigenous heroes of Attica. Each tablet was four feet three inches 
square. Those on the south side related to the battle of the Athenians 
with the Centaurs. One of the metopes is figured on p. 301. 3. The 
frieze which ran along outside the wall of the cella, and within the exter- 
nal columns which surround the building, at the same height and parallel 
with the metopes, was sculptured with a representation of the Panathenaic 
festival in very low relief. This frieze was three feet four inches in height, 
and five hundred and twenty feet in length. A small portion of the frieze 
is figured on p. 287. A large number of the slabs of the frieze, together 
with sixteen metopes from the south side, and several of the statues of the 
pediments, were brought to England by Lord Elgin, of whom they were 
purchased by the nation and deposited in the British Museum. The en- 
graving on p. 266 represents the restored western front of the Parthenon.* 
§ 14. But the chief wonder of the Parthenon was the colossal statue of 
the Virgin Goddess executed by Pheidias himself, which stood in the east- 
ern or principal chamber of the cella. It was of the sort called chrysele- 
phantine,^ a kind of work said to have been invented by Pheidias. Up 
to this time colossal statues not of bronze were acroUths, that is, having 

* A peculiar refiueinent has recently been discovered in the architectural details of the 
Parthenon, and other Grecian temples of the best period. The lines which in ordinary 
architecture are straight, in these temples are delicate curves: and instead of perpendicular 
lines, as in the columns, inclined lines are employed. The lines of the stylobate, for exam 
pie, rise so that the middle is higher than the extremities : and the lines in the entablature 
are nearly parallel. The axes of the columns incline inwards towards the temple, giving in 
reality a pyramidal shape to the structure. The object of these deviations from the recti- 
linear consti-uction is " to correct certain optical illusions arising from the influence pro- 
duced upon one another by lines which have different directions, and by contrasting masses 
of light and shade." These deviations are quite imperceptible, from the usual points of view: 
and the optical effect they produce is that of perfect regularity. Without tlieni, the lines 
of the stylobate would appear to sag in the middle, and the columns to incline outward. 
The failure of most modern buildings in the Greek style has probably been owing to 6he 
ignorance of the architects with respect to this practice of the ancients. The subject 
is fully discussed in the beautiful and scientific work of BIr. Francis C. Penrose, entitled 
" An Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Architecture," &c. London, 1851. Folio. 
It is also treated by Mr. Beul6, in L'Acropole d'Athenes, Tome II. Chap. I. This writer 
suggests a different theory from that mentioned above. — Ed. 

t I. e. of gold and ivory, from XP V'oi'S) golden, and i\e(j)dvTivos, of ivory. 
47 



370 HISTOBT OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIV. 

only the face, hands, and feet of marble, the rest being of wood, concealed 
by real drapery. But in the statue of Athena Pheidias substituted ivory 
for marble in those parts which were uncovered, and supplied the place of 
the real drapery with robes and other ornaments of solid gold. Its height, 
including the base, was twenty-six cubits, or nearly forty feet. It repre- 
sented the goddess standing, clothed with a tunic reaching to the ankles, 
with a spear in her left hand, and an image of Victory, four cubits high, 
in her right. She was girded with the aegis, and had a helmet on her head, 
and her shield rested on the ground by her side. The eyes were of a 
sort of marble resembhng ivory, and were perhaps painted to represent 
the iris and pupil. The weight of solid gold employed in the statue was, 
at a medium statement, forty-four talents, and was removable at pleasure. 
The Acropohs was adorned with another colossal figure of Athena in 
bronze, also the work of Pheidias. It stood in the open air, nearly oppo- 
site the Propylsea, and was one of the first objects seen after passing through 
the gates of the latter. With its pedestal it must have stood about seventy 
feet high, and consequently towered above the roof of the Parthenon, so 
that the point of its spear and the crest of its helmet were visible off the 
promontory of Sunium to ships approaching Athens. It was called the 
" Athena Promachos," * because it represented the goddess armed, and in 
the very attitude of battle. It was still standing in a. d. 395, and is said 
to have scared away Alaric when he came to sack the Acropolis. In the 
annexed coin the statue of Athena Promachus and the Parthenon are 
represented on the summit of the Acropolis : below is the cave of Pan, 
with a flight of steps leading up to the top of the Acropolis. 



Coin showing the Parthenon, Athena Promachos, and the Cave of Pan. 

§ 15. The only other monument on the summit of the Acropolis which 
it is necessary to describe is the Erechtheum, or temple of Erechtheus. 
The Erechtheum was the most revered of all the sanctuaries of Athens, 
and was closely connected with the earhest legends of Attica. The tradi- 



* Trpojuixos, the Defender. 



Chap. XXXIV] ERECHTHEUM. DIONTSIAC THEATRE. 371 

tions respecting Ex'echtheus vary, but according to one set of them he 
was identical with the god Poseidon. He was worshipped in his temple 
under the name of Poseidon Erechtheus, and from the earliest times was 
associated with Athena as one of the two protecting deities of Athens. 
The original Erechtheum was burnt by the Persians, but the new temple 
was erected on the ancient site. This could not have been otherwise ; for 
on this spot was the sacred olive-tree which Athena evoked from the earth 
in her contest with Poseidon, and also the well of salt-water which Posei- 
don produced by a stroke of his trident, the impression of which was seen 
upon the rock. The building was also caUed the temple of Athena Polias, 
because it contained a separate sanctuary of the goddess, as well as her 
most ancient statue. The building of the new Erechtheum was not com- 
menced till the Parthenon and Propylaea were finished, and probably not 
before the year preceding the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war. 
Its progress was no doubt delayed by that event, and it was probably not 
completed before 393 b. c. When finished it presented one of the finest 
models of the Ionic order, as the Parthenon was of the Doric. It stood 
to the north of the latter building, and close to the northern wall of the 
Acropolis. The form of the Erechtheum differs from every known exam- 
ple of a Grecian temple. Usually a Grecian temple was an oblong figure 
with a portico at each extremity. The Erechtheum, on the contrary, 
though oblong in shape, and having a portico at the eastern or principal 
front, had none at its western end, where, however, a portico projected 
north and south from either side, thus forming a kind of transept. This 
irregularity seems to have been chiefly owing to the necessity of preserv- 
ing the different sanctuaries and religious objects belonging to the ancient 
temple. A view of it from the southwest angle is given on p. 356. The 
roof of the southern portico, as shown in the view, was supported by six 
Caryatides, or figures of young maidens in long draperies, one of which is 
figured on p. 334. 

Such were the principal objects which adorned the Acropohs at the time 
of which we are now speaking. Their general appearance wiU be best 
gathered from the engraving on p. 248. 

§ 1 6. Before quitting the city of Athens, there are two or three other 
objects of interest which must be briefly described. First, the Dionysiac 
Theatre, which, as already stated, occupied the slope at the southeastern 
extremity of the AcropoUs. The middle of it was excavated out of the 
rock, and the rows of seats ascended in curves one above another, the di- 
ameter increasing with the height. It was no doubt sufficiently large to 
accommodate the whole body of Athenian citizens, as well as the strangers 
who flocked to Athens during the Dionysiac festival, but its dimensions 
eannot now be accurately ascertained.* It had no roof, but the spectators 

• The dimensions may be nearly ascertained, as the upper tiers of seats, cut in the solid 



372 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIV 

were probably protected from the sun by an awning, and from their elevat- 
ed seats they had a distinct view of the sea, and of the peaked hills of 
Salamis in the horizon. A representation of this theatre viewed from be- 
low is given on a brass coin of Athens. The seats for the spectators are 
distinctly seen ; and on the top, the Parthenon in the centre, with the Pro- 
pylaea on the left. 




Theatre of Dionysus, from a coin. 

Close to the Dionysiac Theatre on the east was the Odeum of Pericle% 
a smaller kind of theatre, which seems to have been chiefly designed for 
the rehearsal of musical performances. It was covered with a conical 
roof, like a tent, in order to retain the sound, and in its original state was 
perhaps actually covered with the tent of Xerxes. It served as a refuge 
for the audience when driven out of the theatre by rain, and as a place 
for ti'aining the chorus. 

The Areopagus * was a rocky height opposite the western end of the 
Acropohs, from which it was separated only by some hollow ground. It 
derived its name from the tradition that Ares was brought to trial here 
before the assembled gods, by Poseidon, for murdering Halirrhothius, the 
son of the latter. It was here that the Council of Areopagus met, fre- 
quently called the Upper Council, to distinguish it from the Council of Five 
Hundred, which assembled in the valley below. The Areopagites sat as 
judges in the open air, and two blocks of stone are still to be seen, proba- 
bly those which, according to the description of Euripides, f were occupied 
respectively by the accuser and the accused. The Areopagus was the 
spot where the Apostle Paul preached to the men of Athens. At the 
southeastern corner of the rock is a wide chasm leading to a gloomy re- 
cess containing a fountain of very dark water. This was the sanctuary 

rock, remain, and a part of the substructions of the stage buildings. The distance from the 
upper seats to the orchestra was about three hundred feet; to the stage, the distance was 
considerably greater. — Ed. 

* 6 ''Apeios ndyos, or Hill of Ares (Mars). 

t Iphig. Taur. 961 



Chap. XXXIV.] STATUE OF the olympian JOVE. 373 

of the Eumenides, called by the Athenians the Semnai,* or Venerable 
Goddesses. 

The Pnyx, or place for holding the public assemblies of the Athenians, 
stood on the side of a low, rocky hUl, at the distance of about a furlong 
from the Areopagus. 

Between the Pnyx on the west, the Areopagus on the north, and 
the Acropolis on the east, and closely adjoining the base of these hills, 
stood the Agora (or market-place). Its exact boundaries cannot be 
determined. The Stoa Poecile, already described, ran along the western 
side of it, and consequently between it and the Pnyx. In a direction from 
northwest to southeast a street called the Cerameicus ran diagonally 
through the Agora, entering it through the valley between the Pnyx and 
the Areopagus. The street was named after a district of the city, which 
was divided into two parts, the Inner and Outer Cerameicus. The former 
lay within the city walls, and included the Agora. The Outer Ceramei- 
cus, which formed a handsome suburb on the northwest of the city, was 
the burial-place of all persons honored with a public funeral. Through it 
ran the road to the gymnasium and gardens of the Academy, which were 
situated about a mile from the walls. The Academy was the place where 
Plato and his disciples taught. On each side of tliis road were monu- 
ments to illustrious Athenians, especially those who had fallen in battle. 

East of the city, and outside the walls, was the Lyceum, a gymnasium 
dedicated to ApoUo Lyceus, and celebrated as the place in which Aris- 
totle taught. 

§ 17. Space will allow us to advert only very briefly to two of the most 
distinguished monuments of the art of this period out of Attica. These 
are the temple of Zeus at Olympia, and the temple of Apollo Epicurius 
at Bass«, near Phigalia in Arcadia. The former, built with the spoils of 
Pisa, was finished about the year 435. It was of the Doric order, two 
hundred and thirty feet long by ninety-five broad. There are still a few 
remains of it. We have already adverted to the circumstance of Pheidias 
being engaged by the Eleans to execute some of the works here. His 
statue of the Olympian Zeus was reckoned his masterpiece, and one of the 
wonders of the world. The idea which he essayed to embody in this work 
was that of the supreme deity of the Hellenic nation, enthroned as a con- 
queror, in perfect majesty and repose, and ruling with a nod the subject 
world. The statue was about forty feet high, on a pedestal of twelve feet. 
The throne was of cedar-wood, adorned with gold, ivory, ebony, precious 
stones, and colors. The god held in his right hand an ivory and gold 
statue of Victory, and in his left a sceptre, ornamented with all sorts of 
metals, and surmounted by an eagle. The robe which covered the lower 
part of the figure, aa well as the sandals, was of gold. After the comple- 

* ai 2f fivai. 



374 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIV. 

tion of the statue, Zeus is related to have struck the pavement in front of 
it with lightning in token of approbation. 

§ 18. The Doric temple of Apollo near Phigalia was built by Ictinus, 
and finished about 430 b. c. It was one hundred and twenty-five feet long 
by forty-seven broad. The frieze of this temple, which is presei'ved in the 
British Museum, represents in alto-rilievo the combat of the Centaurs and 
Amazons, with Apollo and Artemis hastening to the scene in a chariot 
drawn by stags. The sculpture by no means equals that of the Parthe- 
non, or even of the Theseum. The figures are short and fleshy. Some 
of the groups evidently indicate the influence of Attic art, and especially 
an imitation of the sculptures of the Theseum ; but in general they may 
be regarded as affording a standard of the difference between Atheuiazi 
and Pcloponnesian art at this period. 



Chap. XXXV.l 



EARLY UTERATUEE OF ATHENS. 



375 





5fIeIpom6n4, the Muse of Tragedy. Thalia, the Muse of Comedy. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

HISTORY OP ATHENIAN LITERATURE DOWN TO THE END OF THB 
PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 



§1. Characteristics of the early Literature of Athens. §2. Origin of the Drama. §3. In 
troduction of the Drama at Athens. Susarion, Thespis, Phrynichus, Pratinas. § 4. iEs- 
chylus. § 5. Sophocles. § 6. Euripides. § 7. Athenian Comedy. Cratinus, Eupolis, 
Aristophanes. § 8. Prose-writers of the Period. Thucydides. § 9. Xenophon. § 10. 
Athenian Education. § 11. Rhetors and Sophists. § 12. Life of Socrates. § 13. How he 
differed from the Sophists. ^ 14. Enmity against him. § 15. His Impeachment, Trial, 
and Death. 

§ 1. Although the lonians were one of the most intellectual of the Gre- 
cian races, we have had as yet little occasion to mention the Athenians in 
the literary history of Greece. In this path they were at first outstripped 
by their colonists in Asia Minor. The Asiatic Greeks, settled in a fertile 
and luxurious country, amongst a race wealthier than themselves, but far in- 
ferior to' them, soon found those means of ease and leisure which, to a certain 
degree at least, seem necessary to the development of intellectual culture ; 
whilst at the same time their kinsmen in Attica were struggling for a bare 
existence, and were often hard pressed by the surrounding tribes. It was 
not till the time of Peisistratus and his sons that we behold the first dawn 
of literature at Athens. But this literature was of an exotic growth ; the 



£T6 HISTORY OP GKEECE. [ChAF. XXXV. 

poets assembled at the court of the Peisistratids were mostly foreigners ; and 
it was only after the fall of that dynasty, and the establishment of more 
liberal institutions at Athens, that we find the native genius shooting forth 
with vigor. 

It was probably the democratic nature of their new constitution, com- 
bined with the natural vivacity of the people, which caused Athenian 
literature to take that dramatic form which pre-eminently distinguishes it. 
The democracy demanded a hterature of a popular kind, the vivacity of 
the people a hterature that made a lively impression ; and both these con- 
ditions were fulfilled by the drama. 

§ 2. Though the drama was brought to perfection among the Athenians, 
it did not originate with them. Both tragedy and comedy, in their rude 
and early origin, were Dorian inventions. Both arose out of the worship 
of Dionysus. There was at first but Uttle distinction between these two 
species of the drama, except that comedy belonged more to the rural cele- 
bration of the Dionysiac festivals, and tragedy to that in cities. The name 
of tragedy * was far from signifying anything mournful, being derived 
from the goat-like appearance of those who, disguised as Satyrs, performed 
the old Dionysiac songs and dances. In like manner, comedy f was called 
after the song of the band of revellers J who celebrated the vintage fes- 
tivals of Dionysus, and vented the rude merriment inspired by the occa- 
sion in gibes and extempore witticisms levelled at the spectators. It was 
among the Megarians, both those in Greece and those in Sicily, whose 
political institutions were democratical, and who had a turn for rough 
humor, that comedy seems first to have arisen. It was long, however, 
before it assumed anything hke a regular shape. Epicharmus appears to 
have been the first who moulded the wild and irregular Bacchic songs and 
dances into anything approaching a connected fable, or plot. He was 
bom at Cos, about b. c. 540, but spent the better part of his life at Syra- 
cuse. He wi'ote his comedies some years before the Persian war, and 
from the titles of them still extant it would appear that the greater part of 
them were travesties of heroic myths. They seem, however, to have con- 
tained an odd mixture of sententious wisdom and broad bufibonery, for 
Epicharmus was a Pythagorean philosopher as well as a comic poet. 

§ 3. Comedy, in its rude and early state, was introduced into Attica 
long before the time of Epicharmus, by Susarion, a native of Tripodiscus, 
in Megara. It was at Icaria, an Attic village noted for the worship of 
Dionysus, where Susarion had taken up his residence, that he first repre- 
sented comedy, such as it then existed among the Megarians, in tlfe year 
578 B. C. The performances of Susarion took no root ; and we hear 
nothing more of comedy in Attica for nearly a hundred years. 

It was during this interval that tragedy was introduced into Attica, and 

* Tpayabia, literally " the goat-song." t KaiiaBia. X <o)fios. 



Chap. XXXV.j thespis, phrynichus, pratinas. 377 

continued to be successfully cultivated. We have already observed that 
tragedy, like comedy, arose out of the worship of Dionysus ; but tragedy, 
in its more perfect form, was the offspring of the dithyrambic odes with 
which that worship was celebrated. These were not always of a joyous 
cast. Some of them expressed the sufferings of Dionysus ; and it was 
from this more mournful species of dithyramb that tragedy, properly so 
called, arose. Arion introduced great improvements into the dithyrambic 
odes.* They formed a kind of lyrical tragedy, and were sung by a chorus 
of fifty men, dancing round the altar of Dionysus. The improvements in 
the dithyramb were introduced by Arion at Corinth ; and it was chiefly 
among the Dorian states of the Peloponnesus that these choral dithy- 
rambic songs prevailed. Hence, even in Attic tragedy, the chorus, which 
was the foundation of the drama, was written in the Doric dialect, 
thus clearly betraying the source from which the Athenians derived it. 

In Attica an important alteration was made in the old tragedy in the 
time of Peisistratus, in consequence of which it obtained a new and dra- 
matic character. This innovation is ascribed to Thespis, a native of the 
Attic village of Icaria. It consisted in the introduction of an actor, for the 
purpose, it is said, of giving rest to the chorus. He probably appeared in 
that capacity himself, taking various parts in the same piece by means of 
disguises effected by linen masks. Thus, by his successive appearance in 
different characters, and by the dialogue which he maintained with the 
chorus, or rather with its leader, a dramatic fable of tolerable complexity 
might be represented. The first representation given by Thespis was in 
535 B. c. He was succeeded by Choerilus and Phrynichus, the latter of 
■whom gained his first prize in the dramatic contests in 511 b. c. He 
deviated from the hitherto established custom in making a contemporary 
«vent the subject of one of his dramas. His tragedy on the capture of 
Miletus was so pathetic, that the audience were melted into tears ; but 
the subject was considered so ill-chosen, that he was fined a thousand 
drachmfe.f The only other dramatist whom we need mention before 
-3Eschylus is the Dorian Pratinas, a native of Phlius, but who exhibited 
his tragedies at Athens. Pratinas was one of the improvers of tragedy 
by separating the satyric from the tragic drama. As neither the popular 
taste nor the ancient religious associations connected with the festivals of 
Dionysus would have permitted the chorus of Satyrs to be entirely 
banished from the tragic representations, Pratinas avoided this by the 
invention of what is called the Satyric drama ; that is, a species of play in 
which the ordinary subjects of tragedy were treated in a lively and farcical 
manner, and in which the chorus consisted of a band of Satyrs in ap- 
propriate dresses aiad masks. After this period it became customary to 
exhibit dramas in tetralogies, or sets of four ; namely, a tragic trilogy, or 

* See p. 124. t See p. 159. 

48 



878 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXV 

series of three tragedies, followed by a Satyric play. These were often 
on connected subjects ; and the Satyric drama at the end served like a 
merry afterpiece to relieve the minds of the spectators. 

The subjects of Greek tragedy were taken, with few exceptions, from 
the national mythology.* Hence the plot and story were of necessity 
known to the spectators, a circumstance which strongly distinguishes the 
ancient tragedy from the modern. It must also be recollected, that the 
representation of tragedies did not take place every day, but only, after 
certain fixed intervals, at the festivals of Dionysus, of which they formed 
one of the greatest attractions. During the whole day the Athenian pub- 
lic sat in the theatre witnessing tragedy after tragedy ; and a prize was 
awarded, by judges appointed for the purpose, to the poet who produced 
the best set of dramas. 

§ 4. Such was Attic tragedy when it came into the hands of iEschylus, 
who, from the great improvements which he introduced, was regarded by 
the Athenians as its father or founder, just as Homer was of Epic poetry, 
and Herodotus of History. JEschylus was bom at Eleusis in Attica, in 
B. c. 525, and was thus contemporary with Simonides and Pindar. His 
father, Euphorion, may possibly have been connected with the worship of 
Demeter at Eleusis ; and hence, perhaps, were imbibed those religious 
impressions which characterized the poet through life. His first play was 
exhibited in b. c. 500, when he was twenty-five years of age. He 
fought with his brother Cynaegeirus at the battle of Marathon ,t and also at 
those of Artemisium, Salamis, and Platsea. In B. c. 484 he gained his 
first tragic prize. The first of his extant dramas, the Persai, was not 
brought out tiU b. c. 472, when he gained the prize with the trilogy of which 
it formed one of the pieces. In 468 he was defeated in a tragic contest 
by his younger rival, Sophocles ; shortly afterwards he retired to the court 
of King Hiero, at Syracuse. In 467 Hiero died ; and in 458 .-Eschylus 
must have returned to Athens, since he produced his trilogy of the 
Oresteia in that year. This trilogy, which was composed of the trage- 
dies of the Agamemnon, the Ohoephoroi, and the Eumenides, is remarkable 
as the only one that has come down to us in anything hke a perfect shape. 
His defence of the Areopagus, however, contained in the last of these 
three dramas, proved unpalatable to the new and more democratic gener- 
ation which had now sprung up at Athens ; and either from disappointment 
or fear of the consequences ^schylus again quitted Athens and retired 
once more to Sicily. On this occasion he repaired to Gela, where he died 
in B. c. 456, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. It is unanimously related 
that an eagle, mistaking the poet's bald head for a stone, let a tortoise fall 
upon it in order to break the shell, thus fulfilling an oracle predicting that 

* To this should be added the traditions of the great families in the heroic age. — Ed> 
t See p. 166. 



Chap. XXXV.j .aiSCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 379 

he was to die by a blow from heaven. After his death, his memory was 
held in high reverence at Athens. A decree was passed that a chorus 
should be provided at the public expense for any one who might wish to 
revive his tragedies ; and hence it happened that they were frequently 
reproduced upon the stage. 

The improvements introduced into tragedy by -^schylus concerned 
both its form and composition, and its manner of representation. In the 
former his principal innovation was the introduction of a second actor; 
whence arose the dialogue, properly so called, and the limitation of the 
choral parts, which now became subsidiary. His improvements in the 
manner of representing tragedy consisted in the introduction of painted 
scenes, drawn according to the rules of perspective, for which he availed 
himself of the pictorial skill of Agatharchus. He furnished the actors 
with more appropriate and more magnificent dresses, invented for them 
more various and expressive masks, and raised their stature to the heroic 
size by providing them with thick-soled cothurni or buskins. He paid 
great attention to the choral dances, and invented several new figures.* 

The genius of ^schylus inclined rather to the awful and subhme than 
to the tender and patheticf He excels in representing the superhuman, 
in depicting demigods and heroes, and in tracing the irresistible march of 
fate. His style resembles the ideas which it clothes. It is bold, sublime, 
and full of gorgeous imagery, but sometimes borders on the turgid.| 

§ 5. Sophocles, the younger rival and immediate successor of ^schy 
lus in the tragic art, was born at Colonus, a village about a mile from 
Athens, in B. c. 495. We know little of his family, except that his 
father's name was Sophilus ; but that he was carefully trained in 
music and gymnastics appears from the fact that in his sixteenth year he 
was chosen to lead, naked, and with lyre in hand, the chorus which 
danced round the trophy, and sang the hymns of triumph, on the occasion 
of the victory of Salamis (b. c. 480). We have already adverted to his 
wresting the tragic prize from ^schylus in 468, which seems to have 
been his first appearance as a dramatist. This event was rendered very 
striking by the circumstances under which it occurred. The Archon 
Eponymus had not yet appointed the judges of the approaching contest, 



* " Personse pallseque repertor honestse 
iEschylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis, 
Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno." 

HoR., Ar. Poet. 278. 
t In passages — as in the description of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia in the Agamemnon — 
Sschylus shows the most exquisite tenderness of feeling, as well as beauty of language. 
-Ed. 

J iEschylus is said to have written seventy tragedies ; but only seven are extant, which 
were probably represented in the following order: the Persians, b. c. 472; the Seven against 
Thebes, b. c. 471; the Suppliants; the Prometheus; the Agamemnon, Qioephoroi, and Eu- 
menides, b. c. 458. 



380 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXV. 

respecting which public expectation and party feeling ran very high, when 
Cimon and his nine colleagues in command entered the theatre, having 
just returned from Scyros. After they had made the customary hbations 
to Dionysus, the archon detained them at the altar and administered to 
them the oath appointed for the judges in the dramatic contests. Their 
decision, as we have said, was in favor of Sophocles. From this time 
forwards he seems to have retained the almost undisputed possession 
of the Athenian stage, until a young but formidable rival arose in the per- 
son of Euripides. In 440 we find Sophocles elected one of the ten Stra- 
tegi, of whom Pericles was the chief, to conduct the expedition against 
Samos ; an honor which he is said to have owed to his play of the Antig- 
one, which was brought out in the spring of that year, and which is the 
earliest of his extant dramas. He was now fifty-five years of age, yet his 
poetical life seemed only beginning. From this time to his death was the 
period of his greatest literary activity ; but of his personal history we 
have few details. He was one of the ten elders, or Prohouli, a sort of 
committee of public safety appointed by the Athenians after the failure of 
the Sicilian expedition, unless mdeed the Sophocles mentioned on that 
occasion by Thucydides be some other person. The close of his life was 
troubled with family dissensions. lophon, his son by an Athenian wife, 
and therefore his legitimate heir, was jealous of the aflPection manifested by 
his father for his grandson Sophocles, the offspring of another son, Ariston, 
whom he had had by a Sicyonian woman. Fearing lest his father should 
bestow a great part of his property upon his favorite, lophon summoned 
him before the Phratores, or ti'ibesmen, on the ground that his mind was 
affected. The old man's only reply was, " If I am Sophocles, I am not 
beside myself; and if I am beside myself, I am not Sophocles." Then 
taking up his (Edipus at Colonos, which he had lately written, but had 
not yet brought out, he read from it the beautiful passage beginning, 

EwtTTTTOi;, ^kve, racrSe x'^P^^^i* 
with which the judges were so struck that they at once dismissed the case. 
He died shortly afterwards, in b. c. 406, in his ninetieth year. 

* The singular beauties of this chorus have invested the hill of Colonos with rare poetic 
interest. To one who reads the poem on the spot, notwithstanding the changes time has 
made, — especially the disappearance of the temples and the groves (except the olive-gi'oves 
of the Academy, at a short distance), — most of the points in the description are still vividly 
traceable. I^rofessor Thiersch, the veteran scholar, who to his classical acquirements adds 
a profound knowledge of the Greek as now spoken, recited his elegant translation of this 
chorus, while standing on the hill of Colonos with his son, a distinguished young painter; 
who afterwards embodied the poet's thought in a very spirited and classical composition. It 
is very appropriately placed among the artistic and classical treasures of his father's house 
in Mufiich. Colonos has acquired an additional and melancholy interest, as the burial-place 
of Carl Ottfried Miiller, who died a few years ago in Athens, in consequence of a sun-stroke 
received while making excavations at Delphi. A nobler scholar has not adorned the lit. 
erature of the present age, and a more fitting sepulture could not have been found for tha 
editor of the Eumenides. — Ed. 



Chap. XXXV.J EURIPIDES. 381 

As a poet Sophocles is universally allowed to have brought the drama 
to I he greatest perfection of which it is susceptible. His plays stand in 
the just medium between the sublime but unregulated flights of ^schylus, 
and the too familiar scenes and rhetorical declamations of Euripides. His 
plots are worked up with more skill and care than the plots of either ol 
his great rivals : that of the GEdipus Tyrannus in particular is remarkable 
for its skilful development, and for the manner in which the interest of the 
piece increa.^es through each succeeding act. Sophocles added the last 
improvement to the form of the drama by the introduction of a third actor; 
a change which greatly enlarged the scope of the action. The improve- 
ment was .--,0 obvious, that it was adopted by ^schylus in his later plays ; 
but the number of three actors seems to have been seldom or never 
exceeded. Sophocles also made considerable alterations in the choral 
parts, by curtailing the length of the songs, and by giving the chorus itself 
ihfi character of an impartial spectator and judge, rather than that of a 
deeply interested party, which it often assumes in the plays of -^schylus.* 

§ 6. Euripides was born in the island of Salamis, in b. c. 480, his 
parents having been among those who fled thither at the time of the 
invasion of Attica by Xerxes. In early life he practised pamting with 
some success, but he devoted himself with still more earnestness to phi- 
losophy and literature. He studied rhetoric under Prodicus, and physics 
under Anaxagoras, and also lived on intimate terms with Socrates. He 
is said to have written a tragedy at the age of eighteen ; but the first play 
brought out in his own name was acted in B. c. 455, when he was twenty- 
five years of age. It was not, however, till 441 that he gained his first 
prize, and from this time he continued to exhibit plays until b. c. 408, the 
date of his Orestes. Soon after this he repaired to the court of Macedonia, 
at the invitation of King Archelaiis, where he died two years afterwards 
at the age of seventy-four (b. c. 406). Common report relates that he 
was torn to pieces by the king's dogs, which, according to some accounts, 
were set upon him by two rival poets out of envy. 

Euripides received tragedy perfect from the hands of his predecessors, 
and we do not find that he made any changes in its outward form. But 
he varied from them considerably in the poetical mode of handling it, and 
his innovations in this respect were decidedly for the worse. He con- 
verted the prologue into a vehicle for the exposition of the whole plot, in 
which he not only informs the spectator of what has haj)pened up to that 
moment, but frequently also of wliat the result or catastrophe will be. In 
his hands, too, the chorus grew feebler, and its odes less connected with the 



* Sophocles is said to have -written 117 tragedies, but of tliese only seven are extant, 
which are to be ranked, probably, in the following chronological order: the Antigone, B.C. 
440; Electra; Trachinice; (Edipus Tyrannus; Ajax ; Philoctetes, B.C. 409; (Edipua ai 
Col&nos, brought out by the younger Sophocles b. c. 401. 



382 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. XXXV 

Bubject of the drama, so that they might frequently belong to any other 
piece just as well as to the one in which they were inserted. In treating 
his characters and subjects he often arbitrarily departed from the received 
legends, and diminished the dignity of tragedy by depriving it of its ideal 
character, and by bringing it down to the level of every-day life. His 
dialogue was garrulous and colloquial, wanting in heroic dignity, and fre- 
quently frigid through misplaced philosophical disquisitions. Yet in spite 
of all these faults Euripides has many beauties, and is particularly remark- 
able for pathos, so that Aristotle calls him " the most tragic of poets." 
Eighteen of the tragedies of Euripides are still extant, omitting the Rhesus, 
the genuineness of which there are good reasons for doubting. One of 
them, the Cyclops, is particularly interesting as the only extant specimen 
of the Greek satyric drama.* 

§ 7. Comedy was revived at Athens by Chionides and his contempo- 
raries, about B. c. 488 ; but it received its full development from Cratinus, 
who lived in the age of Pericles. Cratinus, and his younger contempo- 
rai'ies, Eupolis and Aristophanes, were the three great poets of what is 
called the Old Attic Comedy .f The comedies of Cratinus and Eupolis 
are lost ; but of Aristophanes, who was the greatest of the three, we have 
eleven dramas extant. Aristophanes was born about 444 b. c. Of his 
private life we know positively nothing. He exhibited his first comedy in 
427, and from that time till near his death, which probably happened 
about 380, he was a frequent contributor to the Attic stage.]: 

The old Attic comedy was a powerful vehicle for the expression of 
opinion ; and most of the comedies of Aristophanes, and those of his con- 
temporaries likewise, turned either upon political occurrences, or upon 
some subject which excited the interest of the Athenian public. Their 
chief object was to excite laughter by the boldest and most ludicrous cari- 
cature ; and provided that end was attained, the poet seems to have cared 
but little about the justice of the picture. A living historian has well 
remarked : " Never probably will the full and unshackled force of comedy 
be so exhibited again. Without having Aristophanes actually before us, 
it would have been impossible to imagine the unmeasured and unsparing 
license of attack assumed by the old comedy upon the gods, the institu- 
tions, the politicians, philosophers, poets, private citizens, specially named, 

* The following is a list of his extant plays: the Alcestis, b. c. 438; Medea, 431; Hip- 
polytus, 428; IJecubn, about 424; HeraclidcB, about 421; Supplices, Jon, Hercules Furens, 
Andromache; Troades, 415; Electra ; Helena, 425; Iphigentia in Tauris; Orestes, 408; 
Phcenissce, Bacchae, and Iphigencia in Aulis were brought out after the death of Euripides by 
his son, the younger Euripides. The date of the Cyclops is quite uncertain, 
t Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poetas, 
Atque alii quorum comcedia prisca virorum est. — Hoe. Sat. I. 4. 

J The eleven extant dramas are : the Acharnians, b. c. 425 ; Knights, 424 ; Clouds, 428; 
Wasps, ^22; Peace, 4:19; Birds, 414.; Lysistrata, 411 ; Thesmophoriazusce, 411; P/u<us, 408; 
Frogs, 405; Ecclesiazusm, 392. 



Chap. XXXV.] Aristophanes. 383 

— and even the women, whose life was entirely domestic, — of Athens. 
With this universal liberty in respect of subject there is combined a 
poignancy of derision and satire, a fecundity of imagination and variety of 
turns, and a richness of poetical expression such as cannot be surpassed, 
and such as fully explains the admiration expressed for him by the phi- 
losopher Plato, who in other respects must have regarded him with un- 
questionable disapprobation. His comedies are popular in the largest 
sense of the word, addressed to the entire body of male citizens on a day 
consecrated to festivity, and providing for their amusement or derision 
with a sort of drunken abundance, out of all persons or things standing in 
any way prominent before the public eye." * In illustration of the pre- 
ceding remarks we may refer to the Knights of Aristophanes, as an 
example of the boldness of his attacks on one of the leading political char- 
acters of the day, — the demagogue Cleon ; whilst the Clouds, in which 
Socrates f is held up to ridicule, and the ThesmophoriazuscB and Frogs, 
containing slashing onslaughts on Euripides, show that neither the greatest 
philosophers nor the most popular poets were secure. Even Pericles 
himself is now and then bespattered with ridicule, and the aversion of the 
poet for the Peloponnesian war is shown in many of his dramas. From 
the nature of his plays it would be absurd, as some have done, to quote 
them gravely as historical authority ; though, with due allowance for comic 
exaggeration, they no doubt afford a valuable comment on the politics, 
literature, and manners of the time. Nor can it be doubted that, under aU 
his bantering, Aristophanes often strove to serve the views of the old aris- 
tocratical party, of which he was an adherent. The mote serious political 
remarks were commonly introduced into that part of the chorus called the 
parabasis, when, the actors having left the stage, the choreutse turned 
round, and, advancing towards the spectators, addressed them in the namfc 
of the poet. Towards the end of the career of Aristophanes the unre- 
stricted license and libellous personality of comedy began gradually to 
disappear. The chorus was first curtailed and then entirely suppressed, 
and thus made way for what is called the Middle Comedy, which had no 
chorus at all. The Plutus of Aristophanes, which contains no political 
allusions, exhibits an approach to this phase. 

An extract from the Knights of Aristophanes will give some idea of the 
unmeasured invective in which the poet indulged. The chorus come upon 
the stage, and thus commence their attack upon Cleon : — 

Close around him, and confound him, the confounder of us all, 
Pelt him, pummel him, and maul him; rummage, ransack, overhaul him; 
Overbear him and outbiiwl him; bear him down, and bring him under; 
Bellow like a burst of thunder, Robber! harpy! sink of plunder! 
Rogue and villain! rogue and cheat! rogue and villain, I repeat! 

« Crete's Htst. of Greece, Vol. VIII. p. 450. 

t Socrates, and through him the Sophists, were the objects of attack in the Clouds. — Ed. 



384 



HISTOKT OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXV 

Oftener than I can repeat it has the rogue and villain cheated. 
Close around him, left and right; spit upon him, spurn and smite: 
Spit upon him as you see; spurn and spit at him like me. 
But beware, or he '11 evade ye, for he knows the private track 
Where Eucrates was seen escaping with his mill-dust on his back. 

Cleon. 
Worthy veterans of the jury, you that, either right or wrong, 
With my threepenny provision, I 've maintained and cherished long, 
Come to my aid ! I 'm here waylaid, — assassinated and betrayed. 

Chorus. 

Rightly served ! we serve you rightly, for your hungry love of pelf; 
For your gross and greedy rapine, gormandizing by yourself; 
You that, ere the figs are gathered, pilfer witli a privy twitch 
Fat delinquents and defaulters, pulpy, luscious, plump, and rich; 
Pinching, fingering, and pulling, tampering, selecting, culling. 
With a nice survey discerning which are green and which are turning, 
Which are ripe for accusation, forfeiture, and confiscation. 

Him, besides, the wealthy man, retired upon an easy rent, 
Hating and avoiding party, noble-minded, indolent, 
Fearful of official snares, intrigues, and intricate affairs; 
Him you mark; you fix and hook him, whilst he 's gaping unawares; 
At a fling, at once you bring him hither from the Chersonese, 
Down you cast him, roast and baste him, and devour him at your ease. 

Cleon. 
Yes ! assault, insult, abuse me 1 this is the return I find 
For the noble testimony, the memorial I designed : 
Meaning to propose proposals for a monument of stone. 
On the which your late achievements should be carved and neatly done. 

Chorus. 
Out, away with him! the slave! the pompous, empty, fawning knave! 
Does he think with idle speeches to delude and cheat us all ? 
As he does the doting elders that attend his daily call. 
Pelt him here, and bang him there; and here and there and everywhere. 

Clemi. 
Save me, neighbors ! the monsters ! my side, my back, my breast! 

Chorus. 
What, you 're forced to call for help ? you brutal, overbearing pest.* 



* Translated by Mr. Frere. 

It is not a little remarkable, that most of the scheme^ of political and social reform 
which have been discussed of late years were anticipated by Aristophanes, and brought 
by him upon the comic stage. In the Ecclesiazusse particularly, the doctrine of woman's 
right to an equal — or rather a superior — share of political power and honor is humorously 
burlesqued. The women of Athens, discontented with the state of public affairs, and 
stimulated by the eloquence of a lady who has a violent desire to address the people, are 
represented as plotting a scheme of revolution, by which the reins of government shall be 
placed in their hands. Accordingly, after having duly practised speaking in a preliminary 
meeting, they manage to steal their husband's garments, and, taking their seats very early 
in the Pnyx, hurry a decree through all the stages of legislation, transferring to the wo- 
men the supreme power of the state. The destruction of pinvate property, the abolition 
of marriage, the establishment of a complete system of Socialism, follow in rapid succession. 
The arguments on which these reforms are defended are precisely such as modern schemers 
have employed, without having given them the slightest additional force. — Ed. 



Chap. XXXV.] THUCTDIDES. 385 

§ 8. Of tlie prose-writers of this period, Thucydides is by far the 
greatest. Herodotus, who belongs to the same period, and who was 
only a few years older than Thucydides, has been noticed in a previous 
chapter. 

Thucydides was an Athenian, and was bom in the year 471 b. c. His 
father was named Olorus, and his mother Hegesipyle, and his family was 
connected with that of Miltiades and Cimon. Thucydides appears to have 
been a man of wealth ; and we know from his own account that he pos- 
sessed gold mines in Thrace, and enjoyed great influence in that country. 
"We also learn from himself that he was one of the sufferers from the great 
plague at Athens, and among the few who recovered. He commanded an 
Athenian squadron of seven ships at Thasos, in 424 b. c, at the time 
when Brasidas was besieging Amphipolis; and having failed to relieve 
that city in time, he went into a voluntary exile, in order probably to 
avoid the punishment of death. He appears to have spent twenty years 
in banishment, principally in the Peloponnesus, or in places under the 
dominion or influence of Sparta. He perhaps returned to Athens in B. c. 
403, the date of its liberation by Thrasybulus. According to the unani- 
mous testimony of antiquity he met with a violent end, and it seems 
probable that he was assassinated at Athens, since it cannot be doubted 
that his tomb existed there ; but some authorities place the scene of his 
death in Thrace. From the beginning of the Peloponnesian war he had 
designed to write its history, and he employed himself in collecting mate- 
rials for that purpose during its continuance ; but it is most likely that the 
work was not actually composed till after the conclusion of the war, and 
that he was engagad upon it at the time of his death. Some critics are 
even of opinion that the eighth and concluding book is not from his hand ; 
but there seems to be little ground for this assumption, though he may not 
have revised it with the same care as the former books. 

Such are all the authentic particulars that can be stated respecting the 
greatest of the Athenian historians. It is only necessary to add a short 
account of his work. The first book is introductory, and contains a rapid 
sketch of Grecian history from the remotest times to the breaking out of 
the war, accompanied with an explanation of the events and causes which 
led to it, and a digression on the rise and progress of the Athenian power. 
The remaming seven books are filled with the details of the war, related 
according to the division into summers and winters, into which all cam- 
paigns naturally fall ; and the work breaks off abruptly in the middle of 
the twenty -first year of the war (a. c. 411). It is probable that tlie di- 
vision of his history into books was the work of the Alexandrine critics, and 
that as it came from the hands of the author it formed a continuous narra- 
tive. The materials of Thucydides were collected with the most scrupu- 
lous care ; the events are related with the strictest impartiality ; and the 
work probably offers a more exact account of a long and eventful period 
49 



386 HISTORY OP GREECE. tCHAP. XXXV. 

than any other contemporary history, whether ancient or modern, of an 
equally long and important era. The style of Thucydides is brief and 
sententious, and whether in moral or political reasoning, or in description, 
gains wonderful force from its condensation. It is this brevity and sim- 
plicity that renders his account of the plague of Athens so striking and 
tragic. But this characteristic is sometimes carried to a faulty extent, so 
as to render his style harsh, and his meaning obscure. 

§ 9. Xenophon properly belongs to the next period of Grecian history ; 
but the subject of the earlier portion of his History is so intimately con- 
nected with the work of Thucydides, that it will be more convenient to 
speak of him in the present place. Xenophon was the son of Gryllus, 
an Athenian, and was probably born about b. c. 444. Socrates is said to 
have saved his life in the battle of Delium, which was fought in b. c. 424, 
and as we know that he lived to a much later period, he could hardly have 
been more than twenty at the time of this battle. Xenophon was a pupil 
of Socrates, and we are also told that he received instructions from Prodi- 
cus of Ceos, and from Tsocrates. His accompanying Cyrus the younger 
in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, king of Persia, formed a 
striking episode in his life, and has been recorded by himself in his A7iaba- 
sis ; but as we shall have occasion to relate this event m our next book, 
we need not touch upon it here. He seems to have been still in Asia at 
the time of the death of Socrates in 399 b. c, and was probably banished 
from Athens soon after that period, in consequence of his close connection 
with the Lacedaemonian authorities in Asia. He accompanied Agesilaus, 
the Spartan king, on the return of the latter from Asia to Greece ; and 
he fought along with the Lacedaemonians against his own countrymen at 
the battle of Coronea in 394 b. c. After this battle he went with Agesi- 
laus to Sparta, and soon afterwards settled at Scillus in EUs, near Olympia, 
where he was joined by his wife and children. His time seems to have 
been agreeably spent at this residence in hunting, and other rural diversions, 
as well as in literary pursuits ; and he is said to have composed here his 
Anabasis, and a part, if not the whole, of the Hellenica. From this quiet 
retreat he was at length expelled by the Eleans, but at what date is un- 
certain ; though he seems at all events to have spent at least twenty years 
at this place. His sentence of banishment from Athens was repealed on 
the motion of Eubulus, but in what year we do not know. His two sons, 
Gryllus and Diodorus, are said to have fought with the Athenians and 
Spartans against the Thebans, at the battle of Man tinea in 362. There 
is, however, no evidence that Xenophon ever returned to Athens. He 
seems to have retired to Corinth after his expulsion from Elis, and 
it is probable that he died there. He is said to have lived to more than 
ninety years of age, and he mentions an event which occurred as late as 
357 b. c. 

Probably all the works of Xenophon are still extant. The Anabasis 



Chap. XXXV.] Athenian education. 387 

is the work on wliicli his fame as an historian chiefly rests. It is written 
in a simple and agreeable style, and conveys much curious and striking 
information. The Hellenica is a continuation of the history of Thucydides, 
and comprehends in seven books a space of about forty-eight years ; namely, 
from the time when Thucydides breaks off, b. c. 411, to the battle of Man- 
tinea in 362. 'The subject is treated in a very dry and uninteresting style ; 
and his evident partiality to Sparta, and dislike of Athens, have frequently 
warped his judgment, and must cause his statements to be received with 
some suspicion. The Cyroptedla, one of the most pleasing and popular 
of Xenophon's works, professes to be a history of Cyrus, the founder of 
the Persian monarchy, but is in reality a kind of political romance, and 
possesses no authority whatever as an historical work. The design of the 
author seems to have been to draw a picture of a perfect state ; and though 
the scene is laid in Persia, the materials of the work are derived from his 
own philosophical notions and the usages of Sparta, engrafted on the popu- 
larly current stories respecting Cyrus. Xenophon displays in this work 
his dishke of democratic institutions like those of Athens, and his prefer- 
ence for an aristocracy, or even a monarchy. Xenophon was also the au- 
thor of several minor works ; but the only other treatise which we need 
mention is the Memorabilia of Socrates, in four books, intended as a de- 
fence of his master against the charges which occasioned his death, and 
which undoubtedly contains a genuine picture of Socrates and his philoso- 
phy. The genius of Xenophon was not of the highest order ; it was prac- 
tical rather than speculative ; but he is distinguished for his good sense, 
his moderate views, his humane temper, and his earnest piety. 

§ 10. In closing this brief survey of Athenian literature, it is necessary 
to make a few remarks upon Athenian education, and upon the greatest 
teacher of his age, — the philosopher Socrates. 

A certain amount of elementary education seems to have prevailed 
among the free citizens of all the Grecian states at the time of whifch we 
are speaking. Instruction was usually imparted in schools. The Pteda- 
gogue, or private tutor, was not a teacher ; he was seldom a man of much 
knowledge, — often indeed a slave, — and his office was merely to watch 
over his pupils in their idle hours, and on their way to the schools. When 
a youth could read with fluency, he was set to learn by heart passages 
selected from the best poets, in which moral precepts and examples of vir- 
tuous conduct were inculcated and exhibited. The works of -^sop and 
Theognis were much used for this purpose. He was then taught those 
accomplishments which the Greeks included under the comprehensive head 
of " music," and which comprised not only the art of playing on the lyre, 
and of singing and dancing, so as to enable him to bear a part in a chorus^ 
but also to recite poetical compositions with grace and propriety of accent 
and pronunciation. At the same time his physical powers were developed 
and strengthened by a course of gymnastic exercises. At the age of 



388 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXV 

eighteen or twenty the sons of the more wealthy citizens attended the 
classes of the rhetors and sophists who gave their lectures in the Lyceum, 
Academy, or other similar institutions ; a course somewhat analogous to 
entering a university in our own times. Here the young man studied rhet- 
oric and philosophy ; under which heads were included mathematics, as- 
tronomy, dialectics, oratory, criticism, and morals. 

§ 11. It will be perceived from the above sketch that the rhetor and 
sophist — whose provinces were often combined, and are generally difficult 
to distinguish with accuracy — played the most important part in the for- 
miition of the future man. They gave the last bias to his mind, and sent 
him forth into the world with habits of thought which in after life he would 
perhaps have neither the leisure nor the inclination to alter, or even to 
examine. Most of the young men who attended their lectures had little 
more in view than to become qualified for taking a practical part in active 
life. The democratical institutions which had begun to prevail in Athens, 
Sicily, and other parts of Greece during the fifth century before the Chris- 
tian era, and which often obliged a public man to confute an adversary, 
to defend himself from an attack, or to persuade a public assembly, ren- 
dered it necessary for him to obtain some knowledge of rhetoric and dia- 
lectics. It was for this purpose that the schools of the rhetors and sophists 
were frequented by the great mass of their hearers, without, perhaps, 
much care for their speculative principles, except so far as they might serve 
as exercises to sharpen dialectic skill. Among the most eminent of these 
teachers in the time of Socrates were Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of 
Leontini, Polus of Agrigentum, Hippias of Elis, Prodicus of Ceos, and 
others. As rhetorical instructors they may be compared with Isocrates 
or Quintilian ; but, generally speaking, there was more or less of philo- 
sophical speculation mixed up with their teaching. 

The name of " Sophist " borne by these men had not originally that in- 
vidious meaning which it came to possess in later times. In its early use 
it meant only a wise or a clever man. Thus it Avas applied to the seven 
sages, and to the poets, such as Homer and Hesiod ; men as far removed 
as possible from the notion implied in the modern term sophist. The word 
seems to have retained its honorable meaning down to the time of Socrates ; 
but Plato and Xenophon began to use it in a depreciatory sense, and as a 
term of reproach. Whenever they wished to speak of a truly wise i lan, 
they preferred the word " philosopher." It may therefore be inferred that 
the name of " Sophist " began to fall into contempt tlirough the teaching 
of Socrates, more especially as we find that. Socrates himself shrank from 
the name. 

§ 12. But the relation of Socrates to the Sophists will be best shown by 
a brief account of his life. 

Socrates was bom in the year 468 b. c, in the deme of Alopece, in the 
immediate neighborhood of Athens. His father, Sophroniscus, was a 



Chap. XXXV.] SOCRATES. 389 

sculptor, and Socrates was brought up to, aud for some time practised, the 
same profession. A group of the Charites or Graces, from his chisel, was 
preserved in the Acropolis of Athens, and Avas extant in the time of Pau- 
sanias. His mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife. Thus his station in life 
was humble, but his family was of genuine Attic descent. He was mar- 
ried to Xanthippe, by whom he had three sons ; but her bad temper has 
rendered her name proverbial for a conjugal scold. His physical constitu- 
tion was healthy, robust, and wonderfully enduring. Indifferent alike to 
heat and cold, the same scanty and homely clothing sufficed him both in 
summer and winter ; and even in the campaign of Potideea, amidst the 
snows of a Thracian winter, he went barefooted. He was moderate and 
frugal in his diet, yet on occasions of festival could drink more wine than 
any other man without being intoxicated. It was a principle with him to 
contract liis wants as much as possible ; for he had a maxim, that to want 
nothing belonged only to the gods, and to want as little as possible was the 
nearest approach to the divine nature. But though thus gifted with 
strength of body and of mind, he was far from being endowed with per- 
sonal beauty. His thick lips, flat nose, and prominent eyes gave him the 
appearance of a Silenus, or satyr. We know but few particulars of his 
life- He served with credit as an hoplite at Potidaea (b. c. 432), Delium 
(b. c. 424), and Amphipolis (b. c. 422) ; but it was not till late in life, in 
the year 406 b. c, that he fiUed any political offi^ce. He was one of the 
Prytanes when, after the battle of Arginusae, Callixenus submitted his 
proposition respecting the six generals to the public assembly, and his 
refusal on that occasion to put an unconstitutional question to the vote has 
been already recorded.* He had a strong persuasion that he was in- 
trusted with a divine mission, and he believed liimself to be attended by a 
daemon or genius, whose admonitions he frequently heard, not, however, 
in the way of excitement but of restraint. He never wrote anything, but 
he made oral instruction the great business of his life. Early in the 
morning he frequented the pubhc walks, the gymnasia, and the schools ; 
whence he adjourned to the market-place at its most crowded hours, and 
thus spent the whole day in conversing with young and old, rich and poor, 
— with all in short who felt any desire for his instructions. There 
was, however, a certain set of persons who were in the habit of fol- 
lowing him to hear his conversation, and these became known as his 
disciples. 

From this public manner of life, he- became one of the best-known 
characters in Athens, and this circumstance was probably the reason why 
he was selected for attack, as the representative of the Sophists in general, 
by Aristophanes and the comic poets. But the picture of Aristophanes 
Bhows that he either did not know, or was not soUcitous about, the real 

* See p. 342. 



390 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXV 

objects and pursuits of Socrates : his only object seems to have been to 
raise a laugh. The dramatist represents Socrates as occupied with 
physical researches. But though in early life Socrates had paid some 
attention to natural philosophy, he soon abandoned the study in disgust, 
from reading a treatise of Anaxagoras, in which he found that the philoso- 
pher's hypotheses were not sustained by any basis of reasoning. This led 
Socrates to turn his attention to dialectics. In this pursuit there can be 
little doubt that he derived great assistance from the Eleatic school of 
philosophers, especially Parmenides and Zeno, who visited Athens when 
Socrates was a young man. He seems to have borrowed from the 
Eleatics his negative method ; namely, that of disproving and upsetting 
what is advanced by a disputant, as a means of unmasking not only false- 
hood, but also assertion without authority, yet without attempting to 
establish anything in its place. 

§ 13. We are now in a condition to see in what points Socrates differed 
from the ordinary teachers or Sophists of the time. They were these : 
1. He taught without fee or reward, and communicated his instructions 
freely to high and low, rich and poor alike. 2. He did not talk for mere 
vain show and ostentation, but for the sake of gaining clear and distinct 
ideas, and thus advancing both himself and others in real knowledge. It 
was with this view that he had abandoned physics, which, in the manner 
in which they were then taught, were founded merely on guesses and 
conjectures, and had applied himself to the study of his fellow-men, wMch 
opened a surer field of observation. And in order to arrive at clear ideas 
on moral subjects, he was the first to employ definition and inference, and 
thus confine the discourse to the eliciting of truth, instead of making it the 
vehicle for empty display. A contrary practice on these two points is 
what constituted the difference between Socrates and the Sophists. 

The teaching of Socrates forms an epoch in the history of philosophy. 
From his school sprang Plato, the founder of the Academic philosophy ; 
Eucleides, the founder of the Megaric school ; Aristippus, the founder of 
the Cyrenaic school ; and many other philosophers of eminence. 

§ 14. That a reformer and destroyer, like Socrates, of ancient prejudices 
and fallacies which passed current under the name of wisdom should have 
raised up a host of enemies, is only what might be expected ; but in his 
case this feeling was increased by the manner in which he fulfilled his 
mission. The oracle of Delphi, in response to a question put by his friend 
Chgex'ephon, had affirmed that no man was wiser than Socrates. No one 
was more perplexed at this declaration than Socrates himself, since he 
was conscious to himself of possessing no wisdom at all. However, he 
determined to test the accuracy of the priestess, for though he had little 
wisdom, others might have still less. He therefore selected an eminent 
politician who enjoyed a high reputation for wisdom, and soon elicited, by 
his scrutinizing method of cross-examination, that this statesman's reputed 



Chap. XXXV.] SOCRATES. 391 

wisdom was no wisdom at all. But of this he could not convince the sub- 
ject of his examination ; whence Socrates concluded that he was wiser 
than this politician, inasmuch as he M^as conscious of his own ignorance, 
and therefore exempt from the ei*ror of believing himself wise when in 
reality he was not so. The same experiment was tried, with the same 
result, on various classes of men ; on poets, mechanics, and especially on 
the rhetors and sophists, the chief of all the pretenders to wisdom. 

§ 15. The first indication of the unpopularity which Socrates had 
incurred is the attack made upon him by Aristophanes in the " Clouds," 
in the year 423 b. c. That attack, however, seems to have evaporated 
with the laugh, and for many years Socrates continued his teaching with- 
out molestation. It was not till B. c. 399 that the indictment was pre- 
ferred against him which cost him his life. In that year, Meletus, a 
leather-seller, seconded by Anytus, a poet, and Lycon, a rhetor, accused 
him of impiety in not worshipping the gods of the city, and in introducing 
new deities, and also of being a corrupter of youth. With respect to the 
latter charge, his former intimacy with Alcibiades and Critias may have 
weighed against him. Socrates made no preparations for his defence, and 
seems, indeed, not to have desired an acquittal. But although he ad- 
dressed the dicasts in a bold, uncompromising tone, he was condemned only 
by a small majority of five or six, in a court composed of between five and 
six hundred dicasts. After the verdict was pronounced, he was entitled, 
according to the practice of the Athenian courts, to make some counter- 
proposition in place of the penalty of death, which the accusers had 
demanded, and if he had done so with any show of submission it is proba- 
ble that the sentence would have been mitigated. But his tone after the 
verdict was higher than before. All that he could be brought to propose 
against himself by way of punishment was a fine of thirty mince, which 
Plato and other friends engaged to pay for him. Instead of a fine, he 
asserted that he ought to be maintained in the Prytaneum at the public 
expense, as a public benefactor. This tone seems to have enraged the 
dicasts, and he was condemned to death. 

It happened that the vessel which proceeded to Delos on the annual 
deputation to the festival had sailed the day before his condemnation ; and 
during its absence it was unlawful to put any one to death. Socrates was 
thus kept in prison during thirty days, till the return of the vessel. He 
spent the interval in philosophical conversations with his friends. Crito, 
one of these, arranged a scheme for his escape by bribing the gaoler ; but 
Socrates, as might be expected from the tone of his defence, resolutely 
refused to save his life by a breach of the law. His last discourse, on the 
day of his death, turned on the immortality of the soul, and has been 
recorded, and probably embellished, in the Phcedo of Plato. With a firm 
and cheerful countenance he drank the cup of hemlock amidst his sorrow* 
Jng and weeping friends. His last words were addressed to Crito: — 



392 HISTORT OF GREECE. [Chap XXXV. 

'' Crito, we owe a cock to JEsculapius ; * discharge the debt, and by no 
means omit it." 

Thus perished the greatest and most original of the Grecian philoso- 
phers, whose uninspired wisdom made the nearest approach to the divine 
morality of the GospeLf 

* In allusion to the sacrifice usually offered by sick persons to that deity on their 
recovery. 

t It is very remarkable that Socrates, if we may rely upon the account Plato gives of the 
conversations held in the prison, during the last two days of his life, inculcates the doctrine 
otthe forgiveness of injuries, as one which would not be assented to at that time, but which 
mu nevertheless to him a truth. — Ed. 




Bast of Socrates. 




The Pactolus at Sardis. 

BOOK V. 

THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES. 
B.C. 403-371. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE EXPEDITION OF THE GREEKS UNDER CYRUS, AND RETREAT Of 
THE TEN THOUSAND. 



^ 1. Causes of the Expedition. § 2. Cyrus engages an Army of Greek Mercenaries. 
Their Character. ^ 3. March to Tarsus. $ 4. Discontent of the Greeks. March to 
Myriandrus. §5. Passage of the Euphrates, and March through the Desert. $6. Battle 
of Cunaxa, and Death of Cyrus. § 7. Dismay of the Greeks. Preparations for Retreat. 
§ 8. Retreat of the Army to the Greater Zab. Seizure of the Generals. § 9. Election of 
Xenophon and others as Generals. § 10. March from the Zab to the Confines of the 
Carduchi. March across the Mountains of the Carduchi. § 11. Progress through 
Armenia. § 12. March through the Country of the Taochi, Chalybes, Scythini, 
Macrones, and Colchi to Trapezus on the Euxine. §13. March along the Coast of the 
Euxine to Chrysopolis. Passage to Byzantium. § 14. Proceedings at Byzantium. 
§ 15. The Greeks enter the Service of Seuthes. § 16. Are engaged by the Laceda- 
monians. Last Exploits of the Army, and Retirement of Xenophon. 

§ 1. The intervention of Cyrus in the affairs of Greece, related in the 
preceding book, led to a remarkable episode in Grecian history, which 
50 



394 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVl 

strongly illustrates the contrast between the Greeks and Asiatics. This 
was the celebrated expedition of Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes, in 
which the superiority of Grecian to Asiatic soldiers was so strikingly 
shown. It was the first symptom of the repulsion of the tide of conquest, 
which had in former times flowed from east to west, and the harbinger of 
those future victorious expeditions into Asia which were to be conducted 
by Agesilaus and Alexander the Great. 

It has been already mentioned, in the account of the death of Alci- 
biades, that Cyrus was forming designs against the throne of his brother 
Artaxerxes. The death of their father, Darius Nothus, took place about 
the beginning of the year b. c. 404, shortly before the battle of ^gos- 
potami. Cyrus, who was present at his father's death, was charged by Tis- 
saphernes with plotting against the new monarch. The accusation was 
beheved by Artaxerxes, who seized his brother, and would have put him 
to death, but for the intercession of their mother, Parysatis, who persuaded 
him not only to spare Cyrus, but to confirm him in his former government. 
Cyrus returned to Sardis, burning with revenge, and fully resolved to 
make an effort to dethrone his brother. 

§ 2. From his intercourse with the Greeks Cyrus had become aware of 
their superiority to the Asiatics, and of their usefulness in such an enter- 
prise as he now contemplated. The peace which followed the capture of 
Athens seemed favorable to his projects. Many Greeks, bred up in the 
practice of war during the long struggle between that city and Sparta, 
were now deprived of their employment, whilst many more had been 
driven into exile by the establishment of the Spartan oligarchies in the 
various conquered cities. Under the pretence of a private war with the 
satrap Tissaphernes, Cyrus enlisted large numbers of them in his service. 
The Greek in whom he placed most confidence, and who collected for 
him the largest number of mercenaries, was Clearchus, a Lacedremonian, 
and foi-merly harmost of Byzantium, who had been condemned to death by 
the Spai-tan authorities for disobedience to their orders. 

It was not, however, till the beginning of the year B. c. 401, that the 
enterprise of Cyrus was ripe for execution. The Greek levies were then 
withdrawn from the various towns in which they were distributed, and 
concentrated in Sardis, to the number of seven thousand seven hundred 
hoplites, and five hundred light-armed troops ; and in March or April of 
this year Cyrus marched from Sardis with them, and with an ai-my of 
one hundred thousand Asiatics. The object of the expedition was pro- 
claimed to be an attack upon the mountain-freebooters of Pisidia; its 
real destination was a secret to every one except Cyrus himself and 
Clearchus. 

The Greeks who took part in this expedition were not mere adven- 
turers and outcasts ; many of them had some position in their own cities, 
and several were even opulent. Yet the hope of gain, founded on th*! 



B. C 401.] 



KOUTE OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 



395 




riches of Persia, and on the kno^vn liberality of Cyrus, was the motiv'e 
which allured them. Among them was Xenophon, an Athenian knight, 
to w horn we owe a narrative of the expedition. He went as a volunteer, 
at the invitation of his friend Proxenus, a Bceotian, and one of the 
generals of Cyrus. 



396 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVI 

§ 3. The march of Cyrus was directed through Lydia and Phrygia. 
After passing Colossae he arrived at Celaenae, where he halted thirty days 
to await the arrival of Clearchus with the reserves and reinforcements. 
The grand total of the Greeks, when reviewed here by Cyrus, amounted 
to eleven thousand hoplites and two thousand peltasts. The line of march, 
which had been hitherto straight upon Pisidia, was now directed north- 
wards. Cyrus passed in succession the Phrygian towns of Peltge, Cera- 
mon Agora, the Plain of Cayster, Thymbrium, and Tyrigeum. At the 
last of these places he was met by Epyaxa, wife of Syennesis, the heredi- 
tary prince of Cilicia. Epyaxa supplied him with money enough to fur- 
ish four months' pay to the Greeks, who had previously been murmuring 
at the irregularity with which they received their stipend. A review was 
then held, in which the Greeks, in their best array, and with newly-fur- 
bished shields and armor, went through their evolutions, and executed a 
mock charge with such effect that Epyaxa jumped out of her palanquin 
and fled in affright, followed by a great part of the Asiatics. Cyrus was 
delighted at seeing the terror which the Greeks inspired. 

From Tyriasum Cyrus marched to Iconium (now Konieh), the last city 
in Phrygia, and from thence through Lycaonia to Dana, south of which 
lay the pass across Mount Taurus into Cilicia. This pass, called the Gates 
of Taurus, or the Cilician Gates, was occupied by Syennesis. But the re- 
sistance of that prince, who was a vassal of the Persian crown, was in 
fact a mere feint. He had already, as we have seen, supplied Cyrus with 
money through. his wife; and he now abandoned his impregnable position, 
and retired first to Tarsus, and thence to an inaccessible fortress in the 
mountains. But when Cyrus arrived at Tarsus, Syennesis, at the first in- 
vitation of his wife, repaired thither, and furnished the young prince with 
a supply of money and a contingent of troops for his expedition. 

§ 4. Pisidia had now been passed, and the Greeks plainly saw that they 
had been deceived, and that the expedition was designed against the Per- 
sian king. Seized with alarm at the prospect of so long a march, they 
declared their resolution to proceed no farther. But they had already ad- 
vanced so far that to retreat seemed as difficult and dangerous as to ad- 
vance ; and, after considerable hesitation and delay, they sent a deputation 
to Cyrus to ask him what his real intentions were. Cyrus replied that 
his design was to march against his enemy, Abrocomas, satrap of Syria, 
who was encamped on the banks of the Euphrates. The Greeks, though 
they still suspected a delusion, contented themselves with this answer in 
the face of their present difiiculties, especially as Cyrus promised to raise 
their pay from one daric to one daric and a half a month. The whole 
army then marched forwards to Issus, the last town in Cilicia, seated on 
the gulf of the same name. Here they met the fleet, which brought them 
a reinforcement of eleven hundred Greek soldiers, thus raising the Gre- 
cian force to about fourteen thousand men. 



B. C 401.] PASSAGE OF THE EUPHRATES. 397 

Abrocomas, who commanded for the Great King in Syria and Phoenicia, 
alarmed at the rapid progress of Cyrus, fled before him with all his army^ 
reported as three hundred thousand strong ; abandoning the impregnable 
pass situated one day's march from Issus, and known as the Gates of Cili- 
cia and Syria. This pass was a narrow i-oad, nearly half a mile in length, 
lying between the sea and JMount Amanus, and inclosed at either end by 
gates. Marching in safety through this pass, the army next reached My- 
riandrus, a sea-port of Phoenicia, where the Grecian generals Xenias 
and Pasion deserted, and hired a merchant-vessel to convey them home. 
Cyrus might easily have captured them with his triremes, but declined 
to do so ; — conduct which won for him the confidence and love of the 
army. 

§ 5. Cyrus now struck off into the interior, over Mount Amanus. 
Twelve days' march brought him to Thapsacus on the Euphrates, where 
for the first time he formally notified to the army that he was marching to 
Babylon against his brother Artaxerxes. At this intelligence loud mur- 
murs again broke forth from the Grecian ranks, and accusations against 
the generals of having deceived them. The discontent, however, was by 
no means so violent as that which had been manifested at Tarsus. The 
real object of the march had evidently been suspected beforehand by the 
soldiers, and the promise of a large donative soon induced them to proceed. 
The water happened to be very low, scarcely reaching to the breast ; and 
Abrocomas made no attempt to dispute the passage. The army now en- 
tered upon the desert, where the Greeks were struck with the novel sights 
which met their view, and at once amused and exhausted themselves in i 
the chase of the wild ass and the antelope, or in the vain pursuit of the 
scudding ostrich. After several days of toilsome march, the army at length 
reached Pylse, the entrance into the cultivated plains of Babylonia, where 
they halted a few days to refresh themselves. 

§ 6. Soon after leaving that place symptoms became perceptible of a 
vast hostile force moving in their front. The exaggerated reports of de- 
serters stated it at one million two hundred thousand men ; its real strength 
was about nine hundred thousand. In a characteristic address Cyrus ex- 
horted the Greeks to take no heed of the multitude of their enemies ; they 
would find in them, he affirmed, nothing but numbers and noise, and if 
they could bring themselves to despise these, they would soon find of what 
worthless stufi" the natives were composed. The army then marched cau- 
tiously forwards, in order of battle, along the left bank of the Euphrates. 
They soon came upon a huge trench, thirty feet broad and eighteen deep, 
which Artaxerxes had caused to be dug across the plain for a length of 
about forty-two English miles, reaching from the Euphrates to the wall 
of Media. Between it and the river was left only a narrow passage about 
twenty feet broad ; yet Cyrus and his army found with surprise that this 
pass was left entirely undefended. Tliis circumstance inspired them with 



398 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVI 

a contempt of the enemy, and induced them to proceed in careless array ; 
but on the next day but one after passing the trench, on arriving at a place 
called Cunaxa, they were surprised with the intelligence that Artaxerxes 
was approaching with all his forces. Cyrus immediately drew up his 
army in order of battle. The Greeks were posted on the right, while 
Cyrus himself, surrounded by a picked body-guard of six hundred Persian 
cuirassiers, took up his station in the centre. It was long, however, before 
the army of the Great King appeared in sight. A white cloud of dust 
in the extreme distance gave the first indication of their approach. Out 
of this an undefined and ominous dark spot began gradually to emerge ; 
presently arms and armor glanced in the sunbeams ; and at length the 
whole array of the enemy became discernible, advancing in dense and 
threatening masses. On their left wing, and consequently opposed to the 
Greeks appeared Tissaphernes, at the head of the Persian horsemen, with 
white cuirasses ; on his right the Persian bowmen with their gerrha, or 
light wicker sliields, which they planted in the ground, and from behind 
them shot their arrows ; next, the array of the Egyptian infantry, whose 
long wooden shields covered their whole body from head to foot. In front 
was a line of chariots, having scythes attached to the wheels, and which 
were to lead the charge. The Persian line was so vast that its centre ex- 
tended beyond the left of Cyrus. Before the battle began Cyrus desired 
Clearchus to attack the Persian centre, where the king in person was 
posted. But Clearchus, whose right rested on the river, cared not to with- 
draw from that position, lest he should be surrounded by the superior num- 
bers of the enemy, and therefore returned a general answer that he would 
manage everything for the best. His over-precaution occasioned the de- 
feat and death of Cyrus. When the enemy were about half a mile distant 
the Greeks charged them with the usual war-shout. The Persians did 
not await their onset, but turned and fled. Tissaphernes and his cavalry 
alone offered any resistance ; the remainder of the Persian left was routed 
without a blow. As Cyrus was contemplating the easy victory of the 
Greeks, his followers surrounded him, and already saluted him with the 
title of king. But the centre and right of Artaxerxes still remained un- 
broken ; and that monarch, unaware of the defeat of his left wing, ordered 
the right to wheel and encompass the army of Cyrus. No sooner did 
Cyrus perceive this movement than with his body-guard he impetuously 
charged the enemy's centre, where Artaxerxes himself stood, surrounded 
with six thousand horse. The latter were routed and dispersed, and were 
followed so eagerly by the guards of Cyrus, that he was left almost alone 
with the select few called his " Table Companions." In this situation he 
caught sight of his brother Artaxerxes, whose person was revealed by the 
flight of his troops, when, maddened at once by rage and ambition, he 
shouted out, " I see the man ! " and rushed at him with his handful of com- 
panions. Hurluig liis javelin at his brother, he wounded him in the breast, 



B. C 401.] RETREAT OF THE GREEKS. 399 

but was himself speedily overborne by superior numbers and slain on the 
spot. 

§ 7. Meanwhile, Clearchus had pursued the flying enemy upwards of 
three miles ; but hearing that the king's troops were victorious on the 
left and centre, he retraced his steps, again routing the Persians who en- 
deavored to intercept him. When the Greeks regained their camp they 
found that it had been completely plundered, and were consequently ob- 
liged to go supperless to rest. It was not till the following day that they 
learned the death of Cyrus ; tidings which converted their triumph into 
sorrow and dismay. A Greek in the service of Artaxerxes now appeared 
in their camp, with a message requiring them to lay down their arms. " If 
the king," replied the Grecian generals, " thinks himself strong enough, 
let him come and take them." But they were in a difficult position. They 
were desirous that Arizeus, who now commanded the army of Cyrus, should 
lay claim to the Persian crown, and offered to support his pretensions ; but 
Arigeus answered that the Persian grandees would not tolerate such a 
claim ; that he intended immediately to retreat ; and that if the Greeks 
wished to accompany him, they must join him during the following night. 
This was accordingly done ; when oaths of reciprocal fidelity were inter- 
changed between the Grecian generals and Ariasus, and sanctified by a 
solemn sacrifice. 

The difficult question now arose how their retreat was to be conducted. 
They were nearly fifteen hundred miles from Sardis, and were to find 
their own way back, without guides, and by a new route, since the for- 
mer one was impracticable on account of the desert and the want of 
provisions. Moreover, though they might easily defy the Persian infantry, 
however numerous, yet the Persian cavalry, ever hovering on their rear, 
would prove a formidable obstacle to their retreat. They commenced 
their march eastwards towards some Babylonian villages, where they hoped 
to find supplies ; but on reaching them at the end of a long day's march, 
they found that they had been plundered, and that no provisions were to 
be obtained. 

On the following day a message arrived from the Persian king, with a 
proposal to tieat for peace on equal terms. Clearchus affected to treat 
the offer with great indifference, and made it an opportunity for procuring 
provisions. " Tell your king," said he to the envoys, " that we must first 
fight ; for we have had no breakfast, nor will any man presume to talk to 
the Greeks about a truce, without first providing for them a breakfast." 
This was agreed to, and guides were sent to conduct the Greeks to some 
villages where they might obtain food. In these all the riches of Babylon 
were spread before them. Corn in vast abundance, dates of such size and 
flavor as they had never before seen, wine made from the date palm ; in 
short, luxury and abundance in place of their late scanty fare and priva- 
tions. Whilst they were enjoying these quarters, they received a visit 



400 



HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIV 



from Tissaphernes, who came in great state. He pretended much friend- 
ship towards them, and said that he had come from the Great King to in- 
quire the reason of their expedition. Clearchus replied — what was in- 
deed true of the greater part of the army — that they had not come thither 
with any design to attack the king, but had been enticed forwards by Cy- 
rus under false pretences ; that their only desire at present was to return 
home ; but that if any obstacle was offered, they were prepared to repel 
hostilities. In a day or two Tissaphernes returned, and with some parade 
stated that he had with great difficulty obtained permission to save the 
Greek army ; that he was ready to conduct them in person into Geeece, 
and to supply them with provisions, for which, hoAvever, they were to pay ; 
but if he failed to supply them, then they were to be at liberty to help 
themselves. An agreement was accordingly entered into to this effect. 

Artaxerxes, indeed, seems to have been heartily desirous of getting rid 
of them. They were now within ninety miles of Babylon, a rich country 
intersected by canals, and easily defensible . against cavalry. But a pain- 
ful interval of twenty days ensued, during which Tissaphernes neglected to 
return ; whilst at the same time the suspicions of the Greeks were excited 
by the friendly messages which Ariseus received from Artaxerxes, with 
promises of oblivion and forgiveness of his past conduct. At length, how- 
ever, Tissaphernes returned, and undertook the direction of the homeward 
march. 

§ 8. The troops of Ariaeus were now mingled with those of Tissa- 
phernes, whilst the Greeks followed the combined army at a distance of 
three miles. In three days' march they reached the wall of Media, and 
passed through it. This wall was one hundred feet high and twenty feet 
broad, and was said to extend a distance of seventy miles. Two days 
more brought them to the Tigris, which they crossed on the following 
morning by a bridge of boats. They then marched northward, arriving in 
four days at the river Physcus and a large city called Opis. Six days' 
further march through a deserted part of Media brought them to some vil- 
lages belonging to Queen Parysatis, which, out of enmity to her as the patron 
of Cyrus, Tissaphernes abandoned to be plundered by the Greeks. From 
thence they proceeded in five days to the river Zabatus, or Greater Zab, 
having previously crossed the Lesser Zab, which Xenophon neglects to 
mention. In the first of these five days they saw on the opposite side of 
the Tigris a large city called Csenae, the inhabitants of which brought over 
provisions to them. At the Greater Zab they halted three days. Mis- 
trust, and even slight hostilities, had been already manifested between the 
Greeks and Persians, but they now became so serious, that Clearchus 
demanded an interview with Tissaphernes. The latter protested the 
greatest fidelity and friendship towards the Greeks, and promised to 
deliver to the Greek generals, on the following day, the calumniators who 
had set the two armies at variance. But when Clearchus, with four other 



B.C. 401.] KETKEAT OF THE GREEKS. 40i 

generals, accompanied by some lochages, or captains, and two hundred 
soldiers, entered the Persian camp, according to appointment, the captains 
and soldiers were immediately cut down ; whilst the five generals were 
seized, put into irons, and sent to the Persian court. After a short im- 
prisonment, four of them were beheaded ; the fifth, Menon, who pretended 
that he had betrayed his colleagues into the hands of Tissaphernes, was at 
first spared ; but after a year's detention was put to death with tortures. 

This scene naturally produced a commotion in the Persian camp ; and 
the Greeks, who observed it from afar, warned by one of the companions 
of the generals, who came running wounded towards them, rushed to arms 
in expectation of a general attack. None, however, followed ; but Ariaeus 
rode up at the head of three hundred horse, and, relating to the Greeks 
the fate of their generals, called upon them to surrender. 

§ 9. It seems to have been the opinion of the Persians, that under these 
circumstances the Greeks would feel themselves completely helpless ; but 
some of the Greek officers stepped forward and dismissed Ariseus with 
indignant reproaches. Yet apprehension and dismay reigned among the 
Greeks. Their situation was, indeed, appalling. They were considerably 
more than a thousand miles from home, in a hostile and unknown country, 
hemmed in on all sides by impassable rivers and mountains, without 
generals, without guides, without provisions. Despair seemed to have 
seized on all. Leaving their watch-fires unlighted and their suppers 
uncooked, they threw themselves on the ground, not to sleep, but to rumi- 
nate on their forlorn condition. Xenophon slumbered, indeed, but his 
fancy was filled with the images naturally conjured up by his desperate 
situation. He dreamed that a thunderbolt had struck his paternal house, 
and enveloped it in flames. This partly favorable and partly unfavorable 
omen indicated at all events a message from Zeus ; and the superstition 
which formed so marked a trait in his character led him to consider it as 
a warning to rise and bestir himself. He immediately got up, and, calling 
an assembly of the captains, impressed upon them the danger of their 
position, and the necessity for taking immediate precautions. Xenophon, 
though young, possessed as an Athenian citizen some claim to distinction ; 
and his animated address showed him fitted for command. He was 
saluted general on the spot ; and in a subsequent assembly was, with four 
others, formally elected to that office. 

§ 10. The Greeks, having first destroyed their superfluous baggage, 
crossed the Greater Zab, and pursued their march on the other bank. 
Tissaphernes preceded them with his host, but without daring to dispute 
their passage or molest their route ; though some cavalry, under Mithri- 
dates, annoyed the rear-guard with their missiles. In order to meet this 
species of attack, a small body of fifty horse and two hundred Rhodian 
slingers was organized. It was found highly useful, as the leaden bullets 
of the Rhodians carried farther than the stones of the Persian slingers. 

51 



402 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVL 

Another day's march brought the Greeks to the Tigris, near the deserted 
city of Larissa, seven miles in circumference, with walls twenty -five feet 
thick and one hundred feet high. Pursuing the course of the Tigris, they 
arrived on the following day at Mespila, another deserted city. It was in 
this neighborhood that Nineveh was situated, and, according to a modem 
theory, the two were both formerly comprised under the name of Nineveh. 
Larissa seems to be represented by the mound now called Nimroud, and 
Mespila by that of Kouyunjik, opposite the modern town of Mosul. 

The march from Mespila to the mountainous country of the Carduchi 
occupied several days, in which the Greeks suffered much from the attacks 
of the enemy. 

§ 11. Their future route was now a matter of serious perplexity. On 
their left lay tlie Tigris, so deep that they could not fathom it with their 
spears; while in their front rose the steep and lofty mountains of the 
Carduchi, which came so near the river as hardly to leave a passage for 
its waters. A Rhodian soldier proposed to transport the army across the 
Tigris by means of inflated skins ; but the appearance of large masses of 
the enemy's cavalry on the opposite bank rendered this ingenious scheme 
impracticable. As aU other roads seemed barred, they formed the reso- 
lution of striking into the mountains of the Carduchi, — a tribe of fierce 
and warlike highlanders, who, though surrounded on all sides by the 
dominions of the Persian king, had succeeded in maintaining their inde- 
pendence. On the farther side of these mountains lay Armenia, where 
both the Tigris and the Euphrates might be forded near their sources. 
The Greeks found the first mountain-pass undefended, and descended 
thence into some villages ; but all their attempts to conciliate the inhab- 
itants proved unavaiHng. Every pass was disputed. Sometimes huge 
rocks were hurled down on the defihng army; sometimes they were 
attacked by the Carduchian slingers and bowmen. The latter were of 
extraordinary skiU, and their bows and arrows of such strength as to 
pierce the shields and corslets, and even the brazen helmets, of the Greeks. 
After a difficult and dangerous march of seven days, during which their 
sufferings were far greater than any they had experienced from the Per- 
sians, the army at length emerged into the plain, and reached the river 
Centrites, the boundary of Armenia. 

§ 12. Their first attempts to cross the Centrites failed. The cavalry of 
Tiribazus, satrap of Armenia, Uned the opposite bank of the river, which 
was two hundred feet broad, up to the neck in depth, with a rapid current 
and shppery bottom. All the efforts of the Greeks to ford it proved 
abortive ; and as the Carduchi were threatening their rear, their situation 
seemed altogether desperate. On the following morning, however, two 
young men fortunately discovered a ford about half a mile higher up the 
stream, by which the whole army succeeded in getting across. They now 
prosecuted their march in Armenia, and in three days arrived at some 



B. C. 401. J ARRIVE IN SIGHT OF THE EUXINE. 403 

villages situated on the river Teleboas. Here Tiribazus proposed to them 
that thej should proceed unmolested through his satrapy, taking what 
supplies they wanted, but without damaging the villages. During the first 
part of their march Tiribazus kept his word, and the only annoyance they 
felt was the severity of the weather. It was now the month of December, 
and Armenia was cold and exposed, being a table-land raised high above 
the level of the sea. "Whilst halting near some well-supplied villages, the 
Greeks were overtaken by two deep falls of snow, which almost buried 
them in their open bivouacs. Hence a five days' march brought them to 
the eastern branch of the Euphrates. Crossing the river, they proceeded 
on the other side of it over plains covered with deep snow, and in the face 
of a biting north wind. Here many of the slaves and beasts of burden, 
and even a few of the soldiers, fell victims to the cold. Some had their 
feet frost-bitten ; some were bhnded by the snow ; whilst others, exhausted 
with cold and hunger, sunk down and died. The army next arrived at 
some singular villages, consisting of dwellings excavated in the earth, and 
entered by means of a ladder through an opening like a well. As these 
villages were plentifully stocked with cattle, com, vegetables, and beer, 
they here took up their quarters for a week, in order to refresh them- 
selves. On the morning after their arrival, they despatched a detach- 
ment which brought in most of the soldiers left behind during the march 
On the eighth day they proceeded on their way, ascending the banks of 
the Phasis, not the celebrated river of that name, but probably the one 
usually called Araxes. 

§ 13. From thence they fought their way through the country of the 
Taochi and Chalybes, both of them brave and warhke tribes. Then, after 
crossing the Harpasus (the modern Tchoroulc), they reached the country 
of the Scythini, in whose territory they found abundance in a large and 
populous city called Gymnias. The chief of this place having engaged to 
conduct them within sight of the Euxine, they proceeded for five days 
under his guidance ; when, after ascending a niountain, the sea suddenly 
burst on the view of the vanguard. The men proclaimed their joy by loud 
shouts of " The sea ! the sea ! " The rest of the army hurried to the sum- 
mit, and gave vent to their joy and exultation in tears and mutual em- 
braces. With spontaneous impulse they erected a pile of stones, by way 
of trophy, to mark the spot ; and dismissed their guide with many presents 
and expressions of the warmest gratitude. 

The Greeks now entered the country of the Macrones, with whom they 
opened negotiations through a peltast conversant with their language, and 
agreed for an unmolested passage and the purchase of provisions. The 
Colchians, through whose territory the march next lay, attempted to op- 
pose their progress, but were soon dispersed. The honey of this region 
produced a singular effect upon the Greeks. It was grateful to the palate, 
and when eaten in moderation produced a species of intoxication; but 



404 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVI. 

those who partook largely of it were seized with vomiting and diarrhoea, 
and thrown into a state resembling madness. 

Two days' further march at length brought them to the objects for 
which they had so often pined, and which many at one time had never 
hoped to see again, — a Grecian city and the sea. By the inhabitants of 
Trapezus or Trebizond, on the Euxine, where they had now arrived, they 
were hospitably received, and being cantoned in some Colchian villages 
near the town, refreshed themselves after the hardships they had under- 
gone by a repose of thirty days. They also seized this opportunity to dis- 
charge the vows which they had made for a safe deliverance, after the 
capture and massacre of their generals by Tissaphernes, by offering up 
sacrifices to Zeus the Preserver, Hercules the Conductor, and other gods. 
Solemn games followed and completed these sacred ceremonies. 

§ 14. The most difficult part of the return of the Ten Thousand was 
now accomplished, but much still remauied to be done. The sight of the 
sea awakened in the army a universal desire to prosecute the remainder of 
their journey on that element. " Comrades," exclaimed a Thurian soldier, 
"I am weary of packing up, of marching and running, of shouldering arms 
and falhng into line, of standing sentinel and fighting. For my part I 
should like to get rid of aU these labors, and go home by sea the rest of 
the way, so that I might arrive in Greece outstretched and asleep, like 
Odysseus of old." The shouts of applause which greeted this address 
showed that the Thurian had touched the right chord ; and when Cheiriso- 
phus, one of the principal officers, offered to proceed to Byzantium and 
endeavor to procure transports for the conveyance of the army, his pro- 
posal was joyfully accepted. Meanwhile, the Ten Thousand were em- 
ployed in marauding expeditions, and in collecting all the vessels possible, 
in case Cheirisophus should fail in obtaining the requisite supply. That 
officer delayed to return ; provisions grew scarce, and the army found 
itself compelled to evacuate Trapezus. Vessels enough had been collected 
to transport the women, the sick, and the baggage to Cerasus, whither the 
army j)roceeded by land. Here they remained ten days, during which 
they were mustered and reviewed ; when it was found that the number of 
hoplites still amounted to eight thousand six hundred, and with peltasts, 
bowmen, &c., made a total of more than ten thousand men. 

From Cerasus they pursued their journey to Cotyora, through the ter- 
ritories of the Mosynteci and Chalybes. They were obliged to fight their 
way through the former of these people, capturing and plundering the 
wooden towers in which they dwelt, and from which they derived their 
name. At Cotyora they waited in vain for Cheirisophus and the trans- 
ports. Many difficulties still stood in the way of their retu]-n. The 
inhabitants of Sinope represented to them that a march through Paphla- 
gonia was impracticable, and the means of a passage by sea were not at 
hand. After remaining forty-five days at Cotyora, a sufficient number of 



B. C. 400.1 PROCEEDINGS AT BYZANTIUM. 405 

vessels was collected to convey the army to Sinope. A passage of twen- 
ty-four hours brought them to that town, where they were hospitably 
received and lodged in the neighboring sea-port of Armene. Here they 
were joined by Cheirisophus who, however, brought with him only a 
single trireme. From Sinope the army proceeded to Heraclea, and from 
thence to Calpe, where Cheirisophus died. From Calp^ they marched 
across Bithynia to Chrysopolis, a town immediately opposite to Byzan 
tium, where they spent a week in realizing the booty which they had 
brought with them. 

§ 15. The satrap Pharnabazus was desirous that the Greeks should 
evacuate Asia Minor ; and, at his instance, Anaxibius, the Lacedaemonian 
admiral on the station, induced them to cross over by promising to provide 
them with pay when they should have reached the other side. But in- 
stead of fulfilling his agreement, Anaxibius ordered them, after their arrival 
at Byzantium, to proceed to the Thracian Chersonese, where the Lacedae- 
monian harmost, Syniscus, would find them pay ; and during this long 
march of one hundred and fifty miles they were directed to support them- 
selves by plundering the Thracian villages. Preparatory to the march 
they were ordered to muster outside the walls of Byzantium. But the 
Greeks, irritated by the deception which had been practised on them, and 
which, through want of caution on the part of Anaxibius, became known 
to them before they had all quitted the town, prevented the gates from 
being closed, and rushed in infuriated masses back into the city, uttering 
loud threats, and bent on plunder and havoc. The lives and property 
of the citizens were at their mercy ; for at the first alarm Anaxibius had 
retired with his troops into the citadel, whilst the affrighted inhabitants 
were either barricading their houses, or flying to the ships for refuge. 
In this conjuncture Xenophon felt that the destruction of a city like By- 
zantium would draw down upon the army the vengeance not merely of the 
Lacedasmonians, but of all Greece. With great presence of mind, and 
under color of aiding their designs, he caused the soldiers to form in an 
open square called the Thracion, and by a well-timed speech diverted 
then^ from their designs. 

Shortly afterwards, the army entered into the service of Seuthes, a 
Thracian prince, who was anxious to recover his sovereignty over three 
revolted tribes. But after they had accomplished this object, Seuthes 
neglected to provide the pay which he had stipulated, or to fulfil the 
magnificent promises which he had made to Xenophon personally, of 
giving him his daughter in marriage, and putting him in possession of the 
town of Bisanthe. 

The army, now reduced to six thousand, was thus again thrown into 
difficulties, when it entered on the last phase of its checkered career by 
engaging to serve the Lacedaemonians in a war which they had just de- 
tlared against the satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus. Xenophon 



406 HISTOKY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVI 

accordingly conducted his comrades to Pergamus in Mysia, where a con- 
siderable booty fell into their hands by the capture of a castle not far from 
that place. Xenophon was allowed to select the choicest lots from the 
booty thus acquired, as a tribute of gratitude and admiration for the ser- 
vices which he had rendered. 

Shortly after this adventure, in the spring of b. c. 399, Thimbron, the 
Lacedismonian' commander, arrived at Pergamus, and the remainder of 
the Ten Thousand Greeks became incorporated with his army. Xeno- 
phon now returned to Athens, where he must have arrived shortly after 
the execution of his master Socrates. Disgusted probably by that event, 
he rejoined his old comrades in Asia, and subsequently returned to Greece 
along with Agesilaus, as we have already related.* 

« See p. 386. 



B.C. 405.] 



THE SPARTAN SUPREMACY. 



407 




Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, in the Street of Tripods at Athens. 



CHAPTER XXXVn. 



rROU THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SPARTAN EMPIRE TO THE BATTLK 

OP CNIDOS. 

§ 1. Invasion and Reduction of Elis by King Agis. § 2. Ambitious Projects of Lysander. 
§ 3. He procures the Throne for Agesilaus. \ 4. Character of Agesilaus. § 5. Nature of 
the Spartan Empire. § 6. Affairs of Asia Minor. ^ 7. Agesilaus proceeds thither. § 8. 
Mortifies Lysander. 4 9* Campaigns of Agesilaus against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus. 
§ 10. Execution of Tissaphernes. § 11. Proceedings of Conon. Rhodes revolts from 
Sparta. ^ 12. Agesilaus ravages the Satrapy of Pharnabazus. Interview between 
them. § 13. Recall of Agesilaus. § 14. Battle of Coidos. 

§ 1. Resuming the thread of the narrative, we shall now briefly trace 
the history of the Spartan supremacy, which resulted from the battle ol 
.^gospotami, and the consequent capture of Athens, related in the preced- 
ing book. This supremacy lasted altogether thirty-four years, from the 
victory of JEgospotami in B. c. 405 to the defeat of Leuctra in b. c. 371. 



i08 mSTORT OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXVH. 

It was, however, only duiing the first nine years of this period that Sparta 
exercised an undisputed sway in Greece, since the battle of Cnidus, fought 
in B. c. 394, deprived her of her maritime ascendency, and consequently 
of much of her power 

After the fall of Athens Sparta stood without a rival in Greece. The 
first use she made of her undisputed power was to take vengeance on her 
neighbors the Eleans for some wrongs and insults which she had received 
at their hands. It will be recollected, that in the year in which Alcibiades 
conducted the Athenian theoria at Olympia with so much splendor, the 
Eleans had excluded the Spa,rtans from the festival ; and moreover, that 
they had subsequently, in conjunction with Argos and Mantinea, borne 
arms against Sparta. To these causes of offence a fresh insult had been 
recently added by the exclusion of King Agis from the temple of Olympia, 
whither he had gone to offer sacrifice and consult the oracle. The Spar- 
tans also viewed with dislike and suspicion the democratical form of 
government established in Elis. Accordingly, they now demanded that 
the Eleans should make good their quota of the expenses of the war 
against Athens, and also that they should rehnquish their authority over 
their dependent townships in the district of TriphyUa. Upon the refusal 
of the Eleans to comply with these demands, King Agis entered their ter- 
ritory at the head of a Lacedaemonian army, in the summer of b. c. 402, 
but he was induced to retire and disband his troops by the unfavorable 
omen of an earthquake. In the following year, however, he resumed the 
expedition with more success. Assisted by the allies of Sparta, among 
whom even the Athenians now furnished their contingent, he ravaged and 
plundered the territory of Elis, performed by force the sacrifice at Oljon- 
pia from which he had been debarred, and ultimately compelled the 
Eleans to accept a humiliating peace. This success placed Sparta in a 
more commanding position than she had ever before occupied ; and she 
took advantage of it to root out her ancient enemies the Messenians, some 
of whom had been planted by the Athenians in Naupactus, and others in 
the island of Cephallenia. 

§ 2. Meanwhile the overgrown wealth and power of Lysander made 
him ill-satisfied to remain in the condition of a private citizen. Stimu- 
lated by the flattery which he received from every quarter, he began to 
contemplate setting aside the two regal families of Pausanias and Agis, and, 
by rendering the crown elective, to pave the way for his own accession to it. 
It is to be recollected, however, that at Sparta such a design must not be 
regarded in quite the same light as in any other monarchy. Although the 
two chief magistrates there enjoyed the title of Basileus, or King, they 
were not kings in the modern sense of the term. They were merely 
hereditary magistrates, enjoying indeed certain privileges, and exercising 
certain definite civil and military functions ; but they had no share in the 
povernment, which was carried on by the Ephors and the Senate, with 



B. C. 398.] ACCESSION OF AGESILAUS. 409 

occasional appeals to the public assembly ; and even in the discharge of 
thek appointed duties they were subject to the control of the Ephors. 

§ 3. Aware of the influence of religion over the Spartan mind, Lysander, 
in pursuance of his scheme, endeavored by bribery to procure for it the 
sanction of the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and Zeus Ammon in Libya. 
But the priests of those famous temples proving on this occasion incor- 
ruptible, he employed his influence in obtaining for another the sceptre 
which had eluded his own grasp. About a year after his campaign in 
Elis, King Agis died, leaving a son named Leotychides, about fifteen years 
of age The legitimacy of Leotychides was however doubted, and Agis 
himself suspected hun to be the offspring of Alcibiades. Agesilaus, the 
younger brother of Agis, but by a different mother, took advantage of these 
doubts, and, being assisted by the powerful influence of Lysander, suc- 
ceeded in setting aside Leotychides and ascending the throne, b. c. 398. 

§ 4. Agesilaus was now forty years of age, and esteemed a model of 
those vii-tues more peculiarly deemed Spartan. He was obedient to the 
constituted authorities, emulous to excel, courageous, energetic, capable of 
bearing all sorts of hardship and fatigue, simple and frugal in his mode of 
life. To these severer qualities he added the popular attractions of an 
agreeable countenance and pleasing address. The character of Agesilaus 
seems, however, to have been magnified beyond its real worth by the 
indiscriminating panegyrics of his biographers, who relate of him many 
trivial anecdotes with a sort of unctuous admiration ; and though he was 
indisputably a good general, yet his campaigns present us with little that 
is striking or decisive. Previously to his accession he had fiUed no 
prominent public office, and his character consequently remained in a great 
measure unknown even to Lysander himself; who erroneously considered 
him to be of a yielding and manageable disposition, and hoped by a skilful 
use of those qualities to extend his own influence, and under the name of 
another to be in reality king himself. 

The personal defects of Agesilaus at first stood in the way of his promo- 
tion. He was not only low in stature, but also lame of one leg ; and there 
was an ancient oracle which warned the Spartans to beware " of a lame 
reign." The ingenuity of Lysander, assisted probably by the popular 
qualities of Agesilaus, contrived to overcome this objection by interpreting 
a lame reign to mean, not any bodily defect in the king, but the reign of 
one who was not a genuine descendant of Hercules. Once possessed of 
power, Agesilaus supplied any defect in his title by the prudence and 
poUcy of his conduct ; and by the marked deference which he paid both to 
the Ephors and the Senators, he succeeded in gainihg for himself more 
real power than had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors. The very 
beginning of his reign was threatened by the conspiracy of Cinadon, one 
of the poorer class of citizens, but possessing all the pride of an ancient 
Spartan. The conspiracy, however, was discovered, and Cinadon and 
52 



410 HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXVU 



his accomplices were arrested by a stratagem of the Ephors and put to 
death. 

§ 5. The discontent which gave birth to this conspiracy originated in a 
great measure from the ahered condition of Spartan citizens, in conse- 
quence of the extension of Spartan power and dominion. Sparta had 
now stepped into the place of Athens. In the various cities which had 
belonged to the Athenian empire, Lysander established an oligarchical 
Council of Ten, called a Dekarchy* or Decemvirate, subject to the con- 
trol of a Spartan Harmo8t^\ or governor. The Dekarchies, however, 
remained only a short time in power, since the Spartan government 
regarded them with jealousy as the partisans of Lysander ; but Haimosts 
continued to be placed in every state subject to their empire. The gov- 
ernment of the Harmosts was corrupt and oppressive ; no justice could be 
obtained against them by an appeal to the Spartan authorities at home ; 
and the Grecian cities soon had cause to regret the milder and more 
equitable sway of Athens. 

The commencement of the Spartan degeneracy and decay may be dated 
from her entrance upon imperial power. Before the victories of Lysander, 
iron had formed the only Spartan money. That commander brought vast 
sums of gold and silver into the public treasury, in spite of the opposition 
of some of the Ephors, who regarded such a proceeding as a flagrant vio- 
lation of the ordinances of Lycurgus. Several instances of corruption 
recorded in the course of this history have, however, shown that the 
Spartans were far from insensible to the love of money, and that they con- 
trived to gratify it even under the old system. But properly regarded, an 
extension of the currency was rendered necessary by the altered situation 
of Sparta. It would have been impossible to maintain a large fleet and a 
colonial empire without the requisite funds ; and how, for instance, could 
a revenue of one thousand talents, which Sparta levied from the subject 
states, have been represented in iron money ? Whether Sparta had now 
entered on a career to which the national genius was suited is another 
question ; and it would not perhaps be difficult to show that, in grasping 
the splendid prize of empire, she lost those homely virtues which 
previousljjj formed her chief distinction, and for which her children were 
naturally most fitted. It is at all events certaiii that the influx of wealth 
caused a great alteration in her internal condition. It was only the lead- 
ing men who were able to enrich themselves by foreign commands or at 
the expense of the public treasury. Hence arose a still more marked dis- 
tinction between the higher class of citizens, caUed Peers, and the lower, 
called the Equals or the Inferiors. \ The latter, though nominally in the 

* AeKopxttt- 

I 'Ap/iooT^s, literally " one who fits or arranges." 

f See p. 59. 



B. C. 397.] WAR IN ASIA MINOR. 411 

enjoyment of equal privileges, were no longer able, in consequence of the 
altered scale of living, to bear their share at the Syssitia, or public tables, 
and thus sank into a degraded and discontented class, in which Cinadon 
found the materials of his sedition. 

§ 6. The affairs of Asia Minor soon began to draw the attention of 
Agesilaus to that quarter. The assistance lent to Cyrus by the Spartans 
was no secret at the Persian court, and Tissaphernes, who had been 
rewarded for his fidelity with the satrapy of Cyrus in addition to his own, 
no sooner returned to his government than he attacked the Ionian cities, 
then under the protection of Sparta. A considerable Lacedcemonian force 
under Thimbron was despatched to their assistance, and which, as related 
in the preceding chapter, was joined by the remnant of the Greeks who 
had served under Cyrus. Thimbron, however, proved so inefficient a 
commander, that he was superseded apparently at the end of 399 or begin- 
ning of 398 B. c, and Dercyllidas appointed in his place, a man who from 
his cunning and resources had acquired the name of Sisyphus. On assum- 
ing the command, Dercyllidas concluded a truce Avith Tissaphernes, in 
order that he might direct his whole force against Phamabazus, from 
whom he had received a personal injury. He overran the greater part of 
-lEolis with great rapidity, reducing nine towns in eight days, and took up 
his winter quarters in Bithynia. Early in the ensuing spring he pro- 
ceeded into Thrace, where he built a wall across the Chersonese, to pro- 
tect the Grecian colonies from the attacks of the barbarians of the interior. 
On his return to Asia he received orders from the Ephors to attack Tissa- 
phernes in Caria, whilst the Lacedaemonian fleet under Pharax co-operated 
with him on the coast. But here the Persians appeared in such force, 
the two satraps having united their armies, that he was able to effect but 
little ; and being surprised in an unfavorable position, would himself have 
suffered severely but for the timidity of Tissaphernes, who was afraid to 
venture upon an action. Under these circumstances an armistice was 
agreed to for the purpose of treating for a peace. Dercyllidas demanded on 
the part of the Spartans the complete independence of the Grecian cities 
in Asia : the Persians on their side required the Lacedaemonians to with- 
draw their army from Asia, as well as their various harmosts, or governors. 

This armistice took place in 397 B. c. Pharnabazus availed himself 
of it to make active preparations for a renewal of the war. He obtained 
large reinforcements of Persian troops, and began to organize a fleet in 
Phoenicia and Cilicia. This was to be intrusted to the Athenian admiral 
Conon, of whom we now first hear again after a lapse of seven years since 
his defeat at JEgospotami. After that disastrous battle, Conon fled with 
nine triremes to Cyprus, where he was now living under the protection of 
Evagoras, prince of Salamis. At the instance of Phamabazus, seconded 
by Evagoras, Conon consented to accept the command of the Persian fleet, 
which was to be raised to the number of three hundred vessels. 

§ 7. It was the news of these extensive preparations that induced Ages- 



412 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVII. 

ilaus, on the suggestion of Lysander, to volunteer his services against the 
Persians. He proposed to take with him only thirty full Spartan citizens, 
or peers, to act as a sort of council, together with two thousand Neoda- 
modes, or enfranchised Helots, and six thousand hoplites of the allies. 
But Thebes, Corinth, and Athens refused, on different pleas, to join the 
expedition. Lysander intended to be the leader of the thirty Spartans, 
and expected through them to be the virtual commander of the expedition 
of which Agesilaus was nominally the head. 

Since the time of Agamemnon no Grecian king had led an army into 
Asia; and Agesilaus studiously availed himself of the prestige of that 
precedent in order to attract recruits to his standard. The Spartan kings 
claimed to inherit the sceptre of Agememnon ; and to render the parallel 
more complete, Agesilaus proceeded with a division of his fleet to Aulis, 
intending there to imitate the memorable sacrifice of the Homeric hero. 
But as he had neglected to ask the permission of the Thebans, and con- 
ducted the sacrifice and solemnities by means of his own prophets and 
ministers, and in a manner at variance with ithe usual rites of the temple, 
the Thebans were offended, and expelled him by armed force ; — an insult 
which he never forgave. 

§ 8. It was in 396 b. c. that Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus, and took 
the command in Asia. He demanded the same conditions of peace as those 
previously made by Dercyllidas ; and in order that there might be time 
to communicate with the Persian court, the armistice was renewed for 
three months. During this interval of repose, Lysander, by his arrogance 
and pretensions, offended both Agesilaus and the Thirty Spartans. Ages- 
Uaus, determined to uphold his dignity, subjected Lysander to so many 
humiliations that he was at last fain to request his dismissal from Ephesus, 
and was accordingly sent to the Hellespont, where he did good service to 
the Spartan interests. 

§ 9. Meanwhile Tissaphernes, having received large reinforcements, 
sent a message to Agesilaus before the armistice had expired, ordering him 
to quit Asia. Agesilaus replied by saying that he thanked the satrap for 
perjui'ing himself so flagrantly as to set the gods against him, and immedi- 
ately made preparations as if he would attack Tissaphernes in Caria ; but 
having thus put the enemy on a false scent, he suddenly turned northwards 
into Phrygia, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, and marched without opposition 
to the neighborhood of Dascylium, the residence of the satrap himself. 
Here, however, he was repulsed by the Persian cavalry ; and the sacri- 
fices proving unfavorable for an advance, Agesilaus gave orders to retreat. 
He now proceeded into winter quarters at Ephesus, where he employed 
himself in oi'ganizing a body of cavalry to compete with the Persians. A 
conscription was accordingly made of the richest Greeks in the various 
towns, who, however, were allowed if they pleased to provide substitutes. 
By these and other energetic exertions, which during the winter gave to 
Ephesus the appearance of one vast arsenal, the army was brought into 



B C. 396.] AGESILAUS IN ASIA. 413 

excellent condition ; and Agesilaus gave out early in the spring of 395 
B. c. that he should march direct upon Sardis. Tissaphemes, suspecting 
another feint, now dispersed his cavalry in the plain of the Mjeander. But 
this time Agesilaus marched as he had announced, and in three days ar- 
rived unop[)Osed on the banks of the Pactolus, before the Persian cavalry 
could be recalled. When they at last came up, the newly raised Grecian 
horse, assisted by the peltasts and some of the younger and more active 
hoplites, soon succeeded in putting them to flight. Many of the Persians 
were drowned in the Pactolus, and their camp, containing much booty and 
several camels, was taken. 

§ 10. Agesilaus now pushed his ravages up to the very gates of Sardis, 
the residence of Tissaphernes. But the career of that timid and treacher- 
ous satrap was drawing to a close. The queen-mother, Parysatis, who 
had succeeded in regaining her influence over Ai-taxerxes, making a pre- 
text of the disasters which had attended the arms of Tissaphernes, but in 
reality to avenge the part which he had taken against her son Cyrus, 
caused an order to be sent down from Susa for his execution ; in pursu- 
ance of which he was seized in a bath at Colossal, and beheaded. Ti 
thraustes, who had been intrusted with the execution of this order, succeeded 
Tissaphernes in the satrapy, and immediately reopened negotiations with 
Agesilaus ; proposing that, if he quitted Asia, the Greek cities there should 
enjoy their independence, with the sole exception of paying to Persia the 
, tribute originally imposed upon them. Agesilaus replied that he could 
decide nothing without consulting the authorities at home. For this pur- 
pose an armistice of six months was concluded ; and meanwhile Tithraustes, 
by a subsidy of thirty talents, induced Agesilaus to move out of his satrapy 
into that of Pharnabazus. 

§ 11. During this march mto Phrygia Agesilaus received a new com- 
mission from home, appointing him the head of the naval as well as of the 
land force, — two commands never before united in a single Spartan, For 
the first time since the battle of ^gospotami the naval supremacy of Spar- 
ta was threatened. Conon, with a fleet of forty triremes, occupied the 
port of Caunus, on the confines of Caria and Lycia, and was there block- 
aded by a LacediBmonian fleet of one hundred and twenty triremes under 
Pharax ; but a reinforcement of forty more ships having come to the aid 
of Conon, Pharax raised the blockade and retired to Rhodes. Here the 
first symptoms appeared of the detestation in which the Spartan govern- 
ment was held. The inhabitants rose, compelled the Spartan fleet to leave 
the island, and put themselves under the protection of Conon, who now 
sailed thither. 

§ 12. Agesilaus, having despatched orders to the Lacedsemonian mari- 
time dependencies to prepare a new fleet of one hundred and twenty tri- 
remes against the following year, and having appointed his brother-in-law, 
Peisander, to the command of it, marched himself into the satrapy of Phar- 
tiabazus. He passed the winter in the neighborhood of Dascylium, the 



414 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVII 

rich and fertile country about which afforded comfortable quarters and 
abundant plunder to the Grecian army. 

Towards the close of the winter, a Greek of Cyzicus, named Apollo-, 
phanes, brought about an interview between Agesilaus and Pharnabazus. 
Agesilaus, with the Thirty, having arrived first at the appointed place, sat 
down without ceremony on the grass. When the satrap came, accompa- 
nied with all the luxury of Oriental pomp, his attendants prepared to spread 
some rich carpets for him ; but Pharnabazus, observing how the Spartans 
were seated, was ashamed to avail himself of such luxuries, and sat down 
on the grass by the side of Agesilaus. After mutual salutes, Pharnabazus 
began to reproach the Greeks with their treatment of one who had always 
been their faithful ally. " You have reduced me so low," he observed, 
"that I have scarcely a dinner except from your leavings. My residences, 
my parks and hunting-grounds, the charm of my life, are all burnt or de- 
stroy ed. Pray tell me if this is gratitude." The Spartans seemed struck 
with shame ; and Agesilaus, after a long pause, remarked in apology, that 
their war with the Persian king compelled them to act as they had done ; 
that towards himself personally they had the most friendly feelings, and 
mvited him to join their alliance, when they would support him in inde- 
pendence of the Persian king. The reply of Pharnabazus was charac- 
terized by a noble frankness. " If the king," he said, " should deprive 
me of my command, I would willingly become your ally ; but so long as 
I am intrusted with the supreme power, expect from me nothing but 
war." Agesilaus was touched with the satrap's magnanimity. Taking 
him by the hand, he observed, " "Would to Heaven that with such noble 
sentiments it were possible for you to be our friend. But at all events I 
will at once quit your territory, and never again molest you or your prop- 
erty so long as there are other Persians against whom to turn my arms." 

§ 13. In pursuance of this promise Agesilaus now entered the plains of 
Thebe, near the Gulf of Elgeus ; but whilst he was here preparing an ex- 
pedition on a grand scale into the interior of Asia Minor, he was suddenly 
recalled home (b. c. 394) to avert the dangers which threatened his native 
country. 

Meanwhile Conon, who had remained almost inactive since the revolt 
of Rhodes, proceeded in person to Babylon, and succeeded in obtaining a 
considerable sum of money from Artaxerxes. He shared his command 
with Pharnabazus, and by their joint exertions a powerful fleet, partly 
Phoenician and partly Grecian, was speedily equipped, superior in number 
to that of the Lacedemonians under Peisander. About the month of July 
Conon proceeded to the peninsula of Cnidos, in Caria, and offered Peisan- 
der battle. Though inferior in strength, Peisander did not shrink from 
the encounter. Being abandoned, however, by his Asiatic allies, he was 
Boon overpowered by numbers, and fell gallantly fighting to the last. More 
than half the Lacedemonian fleet was either captured or destroyed. This 
event occurred about the beginning of August, B. c. 394. 



B. C. 394.] 



MISSION OF TIMOCKATES. 



415 




View of Corinth and the Acrocorinthos. 



CHAPTER XXXVin. 



IHE CORINTHIAN "WAR. 



FROM THE BATTLE OF CNIDOS TO THE PEACE 
OF ANTALCIDAS. 



I 1. Mission of Timocrates to the Grecian Cities. § 2. Hostilities between Sparta and 
Thebes. § 3. The Athenians join the Thebans. Defeat and Death of Lysander. Re 
treat of Pausanias. § 4. League against Sparta. Battle of Corinth. § 5. Homeward 
March of Agesilaus. § 6. Battle of Coronea. § 7. Loss of the Spartan Maritime Empire. 
§ 8. Conon rebuilds the Walls of Athens. §9. Civil Dissensions at Corinth. § 10. Cam- 
paign of Agesilaus in the Corinthian Territory. § 11. New System of Tactics introduced 
by Iphicrates. Destruction of a Spartan Mo7-a by his light-armed Troops. § 12. Nego- 
tiations of Antalcidas with the Persians. Death of Conon. Defeat nud Death of Thim- 
bron. § 13. Maritime War on the Coast of Asia. Revolt of Rhodes. Thrasybulus 
appointed Athenian Commander. His Death at Aspendus. Anaxibius defeated by 
Iphicrat-es at the Hellespont. § 14. War between Athens and jEgina. Teleutias sur- 
prises the Peirseus. § 15. Peace of Antalcidas. § 16. Its Character. 



§ 1. The jealousy and ill-will with which the newly acquired empire 
of the Spartans was regarded by the other Grecian states had not escaped 
the notice of the Persians ; and when Tithraustes succeeded to the satrapy 
of Tissaphernes he resolved to avail himself of this feeling by exciting a 
war against Sparta in the heart of Greece itself With this view he de- 
spatched one Timocrates, a Rhodian, to the leading Grecian cities Avhich 
appeared hostile to Sparta, carrying with him a sum of fifty talents to be 
distributed among the chief men in each for the purpose of bringing them 
over to the views of Persia. This transaction, however, is scarcely to be 
viewed in the light of a private bribe, but rather as a sum publicly 



416 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVIIL 

advanced for a specific purpose. Timocrates was successful in Thebes, 
Corinth, and Argos ; but he appears not to have visited Athens. 

§ 2. Hostilities were at first confined to Sparta and Thebes. A quarrel 
having arisen between the Opuntian Locrians and the Phocians respect- 
ing a strip of border land, the former people appealed to the Thebans, who 
invaded Phocis. The Phocians on their side invoked the aid of the Lace- 
dsemonians, who, elated with the prosperous state of their afi^airs in Asia, 
and moreover desirous of avenging the affronts they had received from the 
Thebans, readily listened to the appeal. Lysander, who took an active 
part in promoting the war, was directed to attack the town of Haliartus, 
having first augmented the small force which he took with him by con- 
tingents levied among the tribes of Mount Q]]ta ; and it was arranged that 
King Pausanias should join him on a fixed day under the walls of that 
town, with the main body of the Lacedaefmoniaiis and their Peloponiiiesian 
allies. 

§ 3. Nothing could more strikingly denote the altered state of feeling in 
Greece than the request for assistance which the Thebans, thus menaced, 
made to their ancient enemies and rivals, the Athenians ; even offering as 
an inducement, to assist them in recovering their lost empire. Nor were 
the Athenians backward in responding to the appeal. Disunion, however, 
prevailed among the Boeotians themselves ; and Orchomenus, the second 
city in importance in their confederacy, revolted at the approach of Ly- 
sander, and joined the Lacedaemonians. That commander, after ravaging 
the country round Lebadea, proceeded according to agreement to Haliartus, 
though he had as yet received no tidings of Pausanias. Here, in a sally 
made by the citizens, opportunely supported by the unexpected arrival of a 
body of Thebans, the army of Lysander was routed, and himself slain ; and 
though his troops, favored by some rugged ground in their rear, succeeded 
in rallying and repulsing their assailants, yet, disheartened by the severe 
loss which they had suffered, and by the death of their general, they dis- 
banded and dispersed themselves in the night-time. Thus when Pau- 
sanias at last came up, he found no army to unite with; and as an 
imposing Athenian force had arrived, he now, with the advice of his 
council, took the humiliating step — always deemed a confession of in- 
feriority — of requesting a truce in order to bury the dead who had fallen 
in the preceding battle. Even this, however, the Thebans would not 
grant, except on the condition that the Lacedgemonians should immediately 
quit their territory. "With these terms Pausanias was forced to comply ; 
and after duly interring the bodies of Lysander and his fallen comrades, 
the Lacedgemonians dejectedly pursued their homeward march, followed 
by the Thebans, who manifested by repeated insults, and even by blows 
administered to stragglers, the insolence inspired by their success. Pau- 
sanias, afraid to face the public indignation of the Spartans, took refuge in 
the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea ; and being condemned to death in 



B. C. 394.] BATTLE OF CORINTH. 417 

his absence, only escaped that fate bj remaining in the sanctuary. He 
was succeeded by his son Agesipolis. 

§ 4. The enemies of Sparta took fresh courage from this disaster to her 
arms. Athens, Corinth, and Argos now formed with Thebes a solemn 
alliance against her. The league was soon joined by the Euboeans, the 
Acarnanians, the Ozolian Locrians, the Ambraciots, the Leucadians, and 
the Chalcidians of Thrace. In the spring of 394 B. c. the allies assembled 
at Corinth, and the war, which had been hitherto regarded as merely 
Boeotian, was now called the Corinthian, by which name it is known in 
history. This threatening aspect of affairs determined the Ephors to 
recall Agesilaus, as related in the preceding chapter. 

The allies were soon in a condition to take the field with a force of 
twenty-four thousand hoplites, of whom one fourth were Athenians, 
together with a considerable body of light troops and cavalry. The Lace- 
daemonians, under the conduct of Aristodemus, had also made the most 
active preparations. The exact amount of their force is not known, but it 
was in all probability inferior to that of the allies. The latter were full of 
confidence, and the Corinthian Timolaus proposed marching straight upon 
Sparta, in order, as he expressed it, to burn the wasps in their nest before 
they came forth to sting. This bold, but perhaps judicious advice, was 
however anticipated by the unwonted activity of the Lacedaemonians, who 
had already crossed their border, and, advancing by Tegea and Mantinea, 
had taken up a position at Sicyon. The allies, who had proceeded as far 
as Nemea, now fell back upon Corinth, and encamped on some rugged 
ground in the neighborhood of the city. Here a battle ensued, in which 
the Lacedaemonians gained the victory, though their allied troops were 
put to the rout. Of the Spai'tans themselves only eight men fell ; but of 
their allies eleven hundred perished, and of the confederates as many 
as twenty-eight hundred. This battle, called the battle of Corinth, was 
fought apparently about the same time as that of Cnidos, in July, 
394 b. c. 

§ 5. Agesilaus, who had relinquished with a heavy heart his projected 
exj)edition into Asia, was now on his homeward march. By the promise 
of rewards at Sestos in the Chersonese, he had persuaded the bravest and 
most efficient soldiers in his army to accompany him, amongst whom were 
many of the Ten Thousand, with Xenophon at their head. The route of 
Agesilaus was much the same as the one formerly travelled by Xerxes, 
and the camels which accompanied the army gave it somewhat of an Oiien- 
tal aspect. At Amphipolis he received the news of the victory at Corinth ; 
but his heart was so full of schemes against Persia, that the feeling which 
it awakened in his bosom was rather one of regret that so many Greeks 
had fallen, Avhose united efforts might have emancipated Asia Minor, than 
of joy at the success of his countrymen. Having forced his way through 
a desultory opposition offered by the Thessalian cavalry, he crossed Mount 
53 



418 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

Othrjs, and marclied unopposed the rest of the way through the straits of 
Thermopylae to the frontiers of Phocis and Bceotia. Here the evil tidings 
reached him — foreshadowed according to ancient superstition by an 
eclipse of the sun (14 Aug. 394 b. c.) — of the defeat and death of his 
brother-in-law, Peisander, at Cnidos. Fearing the impression which such 
sad news might produce upon his men, he gave out that the Lacedaemonian 
fleet had gained a victory, though Peisander had perished ; and, having 
offered sacrifice as if for a victory, he ordered an advance. 

§ 6. Agesilaus soon came up with the confederate army, which had pre 
pared to oppose him in the plain of Coronea. The hostile forces 
approached each other slowly and in silence, till within about a furlong, 
when the Thebans raised . the paean, and charged at a running pace. 
They succeeded in driving in the Orchomenians, who formed the left wing 
of the army of Agesilaus, and penetrated as far as the baggage in the 
rear. But on the remainder of the line Agesilaus was victorious, and the 
Thebans now saw themselves cut off from their companions, who had 
retreated and taken up a position on Mount Helicon. Facing about and 
forming in deep and compact order, the Thebans sought to rejoin the main 
body, but they were opposed by Agesilaus and his troops. The shock of 
the conflicting masses which ensued was one of the most terrible recorded 
in the annals of Grecian warfare. The shields of the foremost ranks were 
shattered, their spears broken, so that daggers became the only available 
arm. The regular wai'-shout was suppressed, but the silence was occasion- 
ally broken by deep and furious exclamations. Agesilaus, who was in the 
front ranks, unequal by his size and strength to sustain so furious an onset, 
was flung down, trodden on, and covered with wounds ; but the devoted 
courage of the fifty Spartans forming his body-guard rescued him from 
death. The Thebans finally forced their way through, but not without 
severe loss. The victory of Agesilaus was not very decisive ; but the 
Thebans tacitly acknowledged their defeat by soliciting the customary 
truce for the burial of their dead. 

After the battle Agesilaus visited Delphi, where he dedicated to Apollo 
a tithe, valued at the large sum of one hundred talents, of the booty which 
he had acquired during his Asiatic campaigns. He then returned to 
Sparta, where he was received with the most lively demonstrations of 
gratitude and esteem, and became henceforwards the sole director of 
Spartan policy. 

§ 7. Thus in less than two months the Lacedaemonians had fought two 
battles on land, and one at sea ; namely, those of Corinth, Coronea, and 
Cnidos. But though they had been victorious in the land engagements, 
they were so little decisive as to lead to no important result ; whilst their 
defeat at Cnidos produced the most disastrous consequences. It was fol- 
lowed by the loss of nearly all their maritime empire, even faster than 
•they had acquired it after the battle of JEgospotami. For as Conon and 



B. C. 393.] CONON KEBUILDS THE WALLS OF ATHENS. 419 

Pharnabazus sailed with their victorious fleet from island to island, and 
from port to port, their approach was everywhere the signal for the flight 
or expulsion of the Spartan harmosts. Abydos formed the only exception 
to this universal surrender. Fortunately for Sparta the able and ex- 
perienced Dercyllidas was then harmost in that city, and by his activity 
and courage he succeeded in preserving not only Abydos, but also the 
opposite Chersonese, from the grasp of Pharnabazus. 

§ 8. In the spring of the following year, b. c. 393, Conon and Pharna- 
bazus sailed from the Hellespont with a powerful fleet, and, after visiting 
Melos and several of the Cyclades, directed their course to the Pelopon- 
nesus. After ravaging the coast of Laconia at several points, and taking 
the island of Cythera, where they established an Athei,iian garrison, they 
sailed to the Isthmus of Corinth, then occupied as a qentral post by the 
allies. The appearance of a Persian fleet in the Saronic Gulf was a 
strange sight to Grecian eyes, and one which might have served as a 
severe comment on the effect of their suicidal wars. Pharnabazus as- 
sured the allies of his support, and gave earnest of it by advancing to 
them a considerable sum of money. Conon dexterously availed himself 
of the hatred of Pharnabazus towards Sparta to procure a boon for his 
native city. As the satrap was on the point of proceeding homewards 
Conon obtained leave to employ the seamen in rebuilding the fortifications 
of Peiraeus and the long walls of Athens. Pharnabazus also granted a 
large sum for the same purpose ; and Conon had thus the glory of appear- 
ing, like a second Themistocles, the deliverer and restorer of his country. 
By a singular revolution of fortune, the Thebans, who had most rejoiced 
at the fall of Athens, as well as the Persians, who had subsidized Sparta 
to destroy the city, now gave their funds and labor to restore it. Before 
the end of autumn the walls were rebuilt. Athens seemed now restored, 
if not to power, at least to independence ; and if she reflected but the shad- 
ow of her former greatness, she was at least raised up from the depths of 
her degradation. Having thus, as it were, founded Athens a second time 
Conon sailed to the islands to lay again the foundations of an Athenian 
maritime empire. 

§ 9. During the remainder of this and the whole of the follomng year 
(b. c. 392), the war was carried on in the Corinthian territory. The 
Onean Mountains, which extend across the Isthmus south of its narrow- 
est part, afford an excellent hue of defence against an invading army. 
Through these mountains there are only three passes, one by the Saronic 
Gulf, close to Cenchrete, a second through a ravine at the eastern side of 
the Acrocorinthos or citadel of Corinth, and a third along the narrow strip 
of land which lies between the western foot of the Acrocorinthos and the 
Corinthian Gul£ The two former of these passes could easily be defended 
by a resolute body of troops against superior numbers ; and the third was 
completely protected by two long walls running down from Corinth to 



420 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[CiiAP. XXXVIII, 



Lechaeum, the port of the city upon the Corinthian Gulf. Corinth and the 
passes of the Onean Mountains were now occupied by the alKed troops ; 
but while the allies themselves suffered little or nothing, the whole brunt 
of the war fell upon Corinth. The Spartans took up their head-quarters 
at Sicyon, whence they ravaged the fertile Corinthian plain upon the 
coast. The wealthy Corinthian proprietors suffered so much from the 
devastation of their lands, that many of them became anxious to renew their 




Plan of Corinth. 



A. Acrocorinthos. 

B. Corinth. 



C. Lechaeum. 
1,1. Long Walls. 



old alliance with Sparta. A large number of the other Corinthians par- 
ticipated in these feelings, and the leading men in power, who were 
violently opposed to Sparta, became so alarmed at the wide-spread disaffec- 
tion among the citizens, that they introduced a body of Argives into the 
city during the celebration of the festival of the Eucleia, and massacred 
numbers of the opposite party in the market-place and in the theatre. 
The government now foi-med such a close union with Argos, that even the 
boundary marks between the two states were removed, and the very name 
of Corinth was changed to that of Argos. But the aristocratical party at 
Corinth, which was still numerous, contrived to admit Praxitas, the Lace- 
dremonian commander at Sicyon, within tlie long walls which connected 
Corinth with Lechseum. In the space between the walls, which was of 
considerable breadth and about a mile and a half in length, a battle took 
place between the Lacedasmonians and the Corinthians, who had marched 
out of the city to dislodge them. The Corinthians, however, were de- 
feated, and this victory was followed by the demohtion of a considerable 
part of the long walls by Praxitas. The Lacedfemonians now marched 
across the Isthmus, and captured Sidus and Crommyon. These events 
happened m b. c. 392. 



B. C. 391.] VICTORY OF IPHICRATES. 421 

§ 10. The breach effected in the long walls of Corinth excited great 
alarm at Athens, as it opened a secure passage to the Lacedsemonians 
into Attica and Bceotia. Accoi'dingly the Athenians moved in great force 
to Corinth, with carpenters and other necessary workmen ; and with this 
assistance the Corinthians soon restored the breach. In the summer of 
B. c. 391, this step was, however, rendered useless, in consequence of 
Agesilaus, assisted by the Lacedaemonian fleet under -his brother Teleutias, 
having obtamed possession not only of the long walls, but also of the port 
of Lechfeum itself. Agesilaus followed up his success by marching into 
the rocky peninsula between the bay of Lechseum and the Alcyonian sea, 
from which Corinth derived both support and assistance. The two prin 
cipal places in this district, Peiroeum and QSnoe, together with large 
booty and many captives, fell into his hands. Corinth was now surround- 
ed on every side ; and the Thebans were thrown into such alarm that 
they sent envoys to Agesilaus to treat of peace. Agesilaus had never 
forgiven the Thebans for having interrupted his sacrifice at Aulis ; and 
he now seized the opportunity of gratifying his spite against them. Ac- 
cordingly, when they were introduced into his presence, he treated 
them with the most marked contempt, and affected not to notice them. 
But a retributive Nemesis was at hand. As Agesilaus sat in a pavihon 
oh the banks of a lake which adjoined the sacred grove of Hera, feasting 
his eyes with the spectacle of a long train of captives, paraded under the 
guard of Lacedaemonian hoplites, a man galloped up on a foaming horse, 
and acquainted him with a disaster more novel and more astounditig than 
any that had ever yet befallen the Spartan arms. This was nothing less 
then the destruction of a whole Lacedaemonian mora, or battalion, by the 
light-armed mercenaries of the Athenian Iphicrates. 

§ 11. For the preceding two years Iphicrates had commanded a body 
of mercenaries, consisting of peltasts,* who had been first organized by 
Conon after rebuilding the walls of Athens. For this force Iphicrates 
introduced those improved arms and tactics which form an epoch in the 
Grecian art of war. His object was to combine as far as possible the 
peculiar advantages of the hophtes and light-armed troops. He substi- 
tuted a linen coi-slet for the coat of mail worn by the hoplites, and les- 
sened the shield, while he rendered the light javelin and short sword of 
the peltasts more effective by lengthening them both one half These 
troops soon proved very effective. At their head Iphicrates attacked and 
defeated the Phliasians, gained a victory near Sicyon, and inflicted such 
loss upon the Arcadian hoplites that they were afraid to meet his peltasts 
hi the field. He now ventured upon a bolder exploit. 

A body of Amyclaean hoplites had obtained leave to celebrate the festi- 
ral of the Hyacinthia in their native city ; and a Lacedaemonian mora^ 

* So called from the pelta, or kind of shield which they carried. 



422 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. XXXVIII 

six hundred strong, was appointed to escort them till they should be 
considered out of reach of attack. Iphicrates, who was in Corinth with 
his peltasts, suffered the Amyclaeans and their escort to pass unmolested; 
but on the return of the Lacediemonians, he sallied forth with incon- 
ceivable hardihood, and attacked them in the flank and rear. So many 
fell under the darts and arrows of the peltasts, that the Lacedtemonian 
captain called a halt, and ordered the youngest and most active of his hop 
Htes to rush forward and drive off the assailants. But their heavy arms 
rendered them quite unequal to such a mode of fighting ; nor did the 
Lacedaemonian cavalry, which now came up, but which acted with very 
little vigor and courage, produce any better effect. At length the Lacedae- 
monians succeeded in reaching an eminence, where they endeavored to 
make a stand ; but at this moment Callias arrived with some Athenian 
hoplites from Corinth, whereupon the already disheartened Lacedaemo- 
nians broke and fled in confusion, pursued by the peltasts, who committed 
such havoc, chasing and killing some of them even in the sea, that but 
very few of the whole body succeeded in reaching Lechaeum. 

The news of this defeat produced a great change in the conduct of the 
Theban envoys then with Agesilaus. They did not say another word 
about peace, but merely asked permission to communicate with their coun- 
trymen at Corinth. Agesilaus, perceiving their altered sentiments, and 
taking them with him, marched on the foUowihg day with his whole force 
to Corinth, where he defied the garrison to come out to battle. But Iphi- 
crates was too prudent to hazard his recently achieved success ; and 
Agesilaus marched back to Sparta as it were by stealth, avoiding all those 
places where the inhabitants, though allies, were likely to show their 
satisfaction at the disgrace of the Spartan arms. No sooner was he de- 
parted than Iphicrates sallied forth from Corinth and retook Sidus, Crom- 
myon, Peirseum, and CEnoe, thus liberating all the northern and eastern 
territory of Corinth. But, in spite of his military abilities and great 
services, thfe domineering character of Iphicrates had rendered him so un- 
popular at Corinth, that the Athenians were obliged to recall him, and 
appoint Chabrias in his place. 

§ 12. Meantime important events had taken place in connection T;\'ith 
the mal-itiihe war. The success of Conon had inspired the Lacedaemoni- 
ans with such aliirm, that they resolved to spare no efforts to regain the 
good-will of the Persians. With this view they sent Antalcidas, an able 
politician tra,ined in the school of Lysander, to negotiate with Tiribazus, 
who had succeeded Tithraustes in the satrapy of Ionia, in order to bring 
about a general peace under the mediation of Persia. His negotiations, 
however, though supported by the influence of Tiribazus, at present 
proved urisuccessful. Conon, and the other representatives of the alHes 
in Asia, rejected with indignation the proposal of Antalcidas to abandon 
the Grecian cities in Asia to Persia ; nor was the court of Susa itself as 



B. C. S89.] REVOLT OF RHODES. 423'. 

yet disposed to entertain any amicable relations with Sparta. Tiribazus, 
however, covertly supplied the Lacedfemonians with money for the pur- 
poses of their fleet, and, by a gross breach of pubUc faith, caused Conon 
to be seized and detained, under the pretence that he was acting contrary 
to the interests of the Great King. This event proved the end of Conon's 
public life. According to one account the Persians caused him to be put 
to death in prison ; but it seems more probable that he escaped and again 
took refuge with Evagoras in Cyprus. Be this, however, as it may, the 
public labors of one of the most useful, if not one of the greatest, of Athe- 
nian citizens, were now brought to a close : a man fi'om whose hands hia 
country reaped nothing but benefit, and to whose reputation history seems 
to have done but scanty justice. 

Struthas, who held the command in Ionia during the absence of Tiri- 
bazus at Susa, carried on hostilities with vigor against the Lacedajmoni- 
ans. In spite of his proved incapacity, Thimbron had been again in- 
trusted with the command of an army of eight thousand men ; but while 
on his march from Ephesus he was surprised by Struthas, and suffered a 
complete defeat. Thimbron himself was among the slain, and those of 
his soldiers who escaped were compelled to take refuge in the neighboring 
cities. 

§ 13. The island of Rhodes now demanded the attention of the bellige- 
rents. The democratical party in this island, having obtained the upper 
hand, had revolted from Persia ; and the Spartans, fearing that they would 
form an alliance with Athens, sent Teleutias, the brother of Agesilaus, with 
a fleet to reduce the island, although they were themselves at war with 
Persia, so much greater was their fear of the Athenians than of the Per- 
sians. On his way from Cnidos, Teleutias fell in with and captured an 
Athenian squadron of ten triremes under Philocrates, which was proceed- 
ing to assist Evagoras in a struggle that was impending between him and 
the Persians. The news of this reverse, as well as the great increase of 
the Lacedfemonian fleet, induced the Athenians to despatch, in B. c. 389, 
a fleet of forty triremes, under Thrasybulus, to the coasts of Asia Minor, — 
a feat which betokens a considerable renovation of their naval power. 
Thrasybulus first proceeded to the Hellespont, where he extended the 
Athenian alliance among the people on both sides of the straits, persuad- 
ed or compelled Byzantium and other cities to establish democratical gov- 
ernments, and reimposed the toll of a tenth on all vessels passing from 
the Euxine. After this, Thrasybulus sailed to Lesbos, where he defeated 
the Lacedaemonian harmost, and next visited several places on the main- 
land, with the view of raising funds for his meditated expedition to Rhodes. 
But the inhabitants of Aspendus in Pamphylia, where he had obtained 
Bome contributions, surprised his naval camp in the night, and slew him. 
Thus perished the man who had delivered his country from the Thirty 
Tyrants. He was succeeded in his command by Agyrrhius. 



424 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXVUI. 

The success of Thrasybulus in the Hellespont created such anxiety at 
Sparta, that the Ephors were induced to supersede Dercyllidas, and ap- 
point Anaxibius to the government of Abydos. Anaxibius took with him 
a force that rendered him master of the straits, and enabled him to inter- 
cept the merchantmen bound to Athens and other ports belonging to the 
allies. The Athenians now despatched Iphicrates with eight triremes and 
twelve hundred peltasts to make head against Anaxibius ; and by a well- 
laid stratagem the Athenian commander succeeded in surprising Anaxibius 
among the mountain ranges of Ida, whilst on his homeward march from 
Antandros to Abydos. The troops of Anaxibius were completely routed 
and himself and twelve other harmosts slain. 

§ 14. This exploit rendered the Athenians again masters of the Hel- 
lespont. But whilst thus successful in that quarter, their attention was 
attracted nearer home by the affairs of -^Egina. After the battle of -^gos- 
potami, Lysander had restored to the island as many of the ancient popu- 
lation as he could find ; and they were now induced by the Lacedasmoniaa 
harmost to infest the Athenian trade with their privateers ; so that, in the 
language of Pericles, ^gina again became " the eyesore of Peirseus." 
The most memorable event in this period of the war was the surprise of 
Petrous by Teleutias with a squadron of only twelve sail. Teleutias Was 
the most popular commander in the Lacedaemonian fleet, and was sent by 
the Ephors to appease the discontent among the Lacedgemonian seamen 
at ^Egina, in consequence of not receiving their pay. Teleutias plainly 
told them that they had nothing to depend upon but their swords, and he 
bade them prepare for an enterprise, the object of which he did not then 
disclose. This was nothing less than an attack upon Peirgeus ; an enter- 
prise which it seemed almost insane to attempt with a force of only twelve 
■ triremes. But Teleutias reckoned on taking the Athenians by surprise. 
Quitting the harbor of -3<]gina at nightfall, and rowing along leisurely 
and in silence, Teleutias found himself at daybreak within half a mile of 
Peirseus, and when it was fully light he steered his vessels sti-aight into 
the harbor, which was beginning to assume again some of its former com- 
mercial importance. Here, as he expected, he found no preparations for 
repelling an attack, and though the alarm was immediately raised, he had 
time to inflict considerable damage before any troops could be got together 
to oppose liim. His men disembarked on the quays, and carried off, not 
only the portable merchandise, but also the shipmasters, tradesmen, and 
others whom they found there. The larger merchant-ships were boai'ded 
and plundered ; several of the smaller were towed off with their whole 
cargoes ; and even three or four triremes met the same fate. All this booty 
Teleutias succeeded in carrying safely into -^ilgina, together with several 
corn-ships, and other merchantmen which he fell in with off Sunium. The 
prizes were then sold, and yielded so large a sum that Teleutias was able 
to pay the seamen a month's wages. 



B- C. 387.] PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS. 425 

§ 15. Wliilst these things were passing in Greece, Antalcidas, conducted 
by Tiribazus, had repaired to the Persian court a second time, for the pur- 
pose of renewing his negotiations for a general peace, on the same basis as 
he had proposed before. This time he succeeded in winning the favor of 
the Persian monarch, in spite of liis dishke of the Spartans generally, and 
prevailed on him both to adopt the peace, and to declare war against those 
w^ho should reject it. Antalcidas and Tiribazus again arrived on the coasts 
of Asia Minor in the spring of B. c. 387, not only armed with these pow- 
ers, but provided with an ample force to carry them into execution. In 
addition to the entire fleet of Persia, Dionysius of Syracuse had placed 
twenty triremes at the service of the Lacedagmonians ; and Antalcidas 
now sailed with a large fleet to the Hellespont, where Iphicrates and the 
Athenians were still predominant. But the overwhelming force of Antal- 
cidas, the largest that had been seen in the Hellespont since the battle of 
..^gospotami, rendered all resistance hopeless. The supplies of corn from 
the Euxine no longer found their way to Athens ; the ^ginetan privateers 
resumed their depredations ; and the Athenians, depressed at once both 
by what they felt and by what they anticipated, began to long for peace. 
The Argives participated in the same desire ; and as without the assistance 
of Athens it seemed hopeless for the other allies to struggle against Sparta, 
all Greece seemed inclined to listen to an accommodation. 

Under these circumstances deputies from the Grecian states. were sum- 
moned to meet Tiribazus ; who, after exhibiting to them the royal seal of 
Persia, read to them the following terms of a peace : " King Artaxerxes 
thinks it just that the cities in Asia and the islands of Clazomenas and 
Cyprus should belong to him. He also thinks it just to leave all the other 
Grecian cities, both small and great, independent, — except Lemnos, Im- 
bros, and Scyros, which are to belong to Athens, as of old. Should any 
parties refuse to accept this peace, I will make war upon them, along 
wath those who are of the same mind, both by land and sea, witi ships 
and with money." 

The deputies reported these terms to their respective governments, all 
of which at once accepted the peace with the exception of the Thebans, 
w^ho claimed to take the oath not in their own behalf alone, but for the 
Boeotian confederacy in general. But w^hen Agesilaus threatened the 
Thebans wath war if they did not comply, they consented to take the oath 
for their own city alone, — thus virtually renouncing their federal headship. 
§ 16. This disgraceful peace, called the peace of Antalcidas, was con- 
cluded in the year B. c. 387. By it Hellas seemed prostrated at the feet 
of the barbarians ; for its very terms, engraven on stone and set up in the 
sanctuaries of Greece, recognized the Persian king as the arbiter of her 
destinies. Although Athens cannot be entirely exonerated from the blame 
of this transaction, the chief guilt rests upon Sparta, whose designs were 
far deeper and more hypocritical than they appeared. Under the specious 
54 



42Q 



HISTOKY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXVIIL 



^efeext of securing the independence of the Grecian cities, her only object 
■was to break up the confederacies under Athens and Thebes, and, with 
the assistance of Persia, to pave the way for her own absohate dominion 
in Greece. Her real aim is pithily characterized in an anecdote recorded 
of Agesilaus. When somebody remarked, " Alas for Hellas, that our 
Spartans should be Medizing ! " — " Say rather," replied Agesilaus, " that 
the Medes are Laconizing." 




Adventures of Dionysus, from the Choragic Monument of Lysicratea. 



B. C. 385.] 



REBUILDING OF PLATiEA. 



427 




Adventures of Dionysus', from the Chofagic Monument of Lysicrates. 



CHAPTEE XXXiXv 



FROM THE PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS TO THE PEACE OF CALLIAS. 

§ 1. Aggressions of Sparta in Boeotia. Rebuilding of Platsea. § 2. Reduction of JlantineJl. 
§3. Olynthian Confederation. Sparta interferes. ^4. Seizure of the Cadmea at Thebes 
bythe Lacedsemonians. §5. Reduction of Olyntlius. §6. Unpopularity of Sparta. ^7. 
Revolution at Thebes. § 8. Tlie Lacedfemonians expelled from the Cadmea. § 9. Their 
Expeditions against Thebes. Alarm of the Athenians, who ally themselves with Thebes. 
§ 10. Reorganization of the Athenian Confederation. § 11. Preparations for War. The 
Theban " Sacred Band." § 12. Character of I^pameinondas. § 13. Spartan Invasions of 
Boeotia. ■^14. Maritime Affairs. Battle of Naxos. Succe.=s of Timotheus. § 15. Pfog 
ress of the Tlieban Arms. § 16. The Athenians form a Peace with Sparta, which is im- 
mediately broken. Proceedings at Corcyra. ^ 17. Tlie LacedaBmonians solicit Persian 
Aid. § 18. Congress at Sparta to treat of Peace. The Thebans are excluded from it. 



§ 1. No sooner was the peace of Antalcidas concluded, than Sparta, 
directed by Agesilaus, the ever-active enemy of Thebes, exerted all her 
power to weaken that city. She began by proclaiming the independence 
of the various Boeotian cities, and by organizing in each a local oligarchy, 
adverse to Thebes and favorable to herself The popular feeling in these 
cities was in general opposed to the Spartan dominion ; two alone, Oi'chome- 
nus and Thespiae, preferred it to that of Thebes ; and in these the Lace- 
dgemonians placed garrisons, and made them their main stations in Boeotia. 
Even such a step as this seemed to exceed the spirit of the treaty, which 
requirefi merely the independence of each city ; but the restoration of Pla- 
taaa, now effected by the Lacedasmonians, was an evident work of super- 
erogation, undertaken only to annoy and weaken Thebes, and to form a 
place for another Lacedaemonian garrison. Since the destruction of Pla- 
taea, most of her remaining citizens had become domiciled at Athens, had 
married Athenian women, and had thus almost forgotten their native coun- 
try. These were now restored, and their city rebuilt ; but merely that it 
might become a Spartan outpost. Thebes was at present too weak to 
resist these encroachments on her dignity and power, which even at Sparta 



W8 HISTOKT OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIX. 

were regarded witli dissatisfaction by King Agesipolis and the more moder- 
ate party. 

§ 2. The Lacedaemonians now found themselves in a condition to wreak 
their vengeance on the Mantineans, by whom they deemed themselves 
aggrieved. They could not, indeed, bring any charge of positive hostility 
against the Mantineans ; but they accused them of lukewarmuess and 
equivocal fidelity ; of having been slack in furnislnng their contingents 
during the late war ; and of having supplied the Argives with com when 
at war with Sparta. On these grounds a message was sent requiring the 
Mantineans to raze their walls ; and as they hesitated to comply, an army 
was despatched under Agesipolis to enforce obedience. Agesipolis suc- 
ceeded in taking Mantinea, which was well supplied with provisions, by 
damming up the river Ophis which ran through it. The inundation thus 
caused undermined the walls, which were built of baked bricks, and obliged 
the citizens to capitulate. Much harder terms were now exacted from 
them. Tliey were required not only to demolish their fortifications, but 
also a great part of their town, so as to restore it to tlie form of five vil- 
lages, out of which it had been originally formed. Each of these villages 
was left unfortified, and placed under a separate oligarchical government. 
About the same time the Lacedaemonians compelled the city of Phlius to 
recall a body of exiles who had been expelled on account of their attach- 
ment to the interests of Sparta. 

§ 3. But the attention of Sparta was soon called to more distant regions. 
Olynthus, a town situated at the head of the Toronaic Gulf in the peninsula 
of the Macedonian Chalcidice, had become the head of a powerful confed- 
eration, which included several of the adjacent Grecian cities, and among 
them Potideea, on the isthmus of Pallene. Acanthus and Apollonia, the 
largest cities after Olynthus in the Chalcidic peninsula, had i-efused to 
join the league ; and as they were threatened witli war by Olynthus, they 
despatched envoys to Sparta to solicit aid (b. c. 383). The envoys gave 
an alarming account of the designs of Olynthus : and they being seconded 
by ambassadors from Amyntas, king of Macedonia, the Lacedivinionians 
were easily persuaded to enter upon an undertaking which harmonized 
with their present course of policy. Their allies were persuaded or rather 
overawed into the adoption of their views, and an army of ten thousand 
men was voted. The emergency, howevei', was so pressing that Eudami- 
das was despatched at once with a force of two thousand hoplites. March- 
ing rapidly with only a portion even of tliese, he arrived in season to 
defend Acanthus and Apollonia, and even succeeded in inducing Potidoea to 
revolt from the league. But though joined by Amyntas with his forces, 
he was not strong enough to take the field openly against the Olynthians. 

§ 4. This expedition of the Lacedaemonians led incidentally to an affair 
of much greater importance. The Thebans had entered into an alliance 
with Olynthus, and had forbidden any of their citizens to join the Lace- 



B. C 383 ] SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA AT THEBES. 429 

diaemonian army destined to act against it ; but they were not strong enough 
to prevent its marching through their territory. Phoebidas, the brother of 
Eudamidas, was appointed to collect the tooops which were not m readi- 
ness at the time of his brother's departure, and to march with all possible 
speed towards Olynthus. On his way through Bceotia he halted with his 
division at a gymnasium not far from Thebes ; where he was visited by 
Leontiades, one of the jjolemarchs of the city, and two or three othei 
leaders of the Lacedtemonian party in Thebes. It happened that the fes- 
tival of the Thesmophoria was on the point of being celebrated, during 
which the Cadmea, or Theban Acropolis, was given up for the exclusive 
use of tlie women. The opportunity seemed favorable for a surprise ; and 
Leontiades and Phoebidas concerted a plot to seize it. Whilst the festival 
was celeljrating, Phoebidas pretended to resume his march, but only made 
a circuit round the city walls ; whilst Leontiades, stealing out of the 
Senate, mounted his horse, and, joining the Lacedaemonian troops, con- 
ducted them towards the Cadmea. It was a sultry summer's afternoon, 
so that the very streets were deserted ; and Phoebidas, without encounter- 
ing any opposition, seized the citadel and all the women in it, to serve as 
hostages for the quiet submission of the Thebans. Leontiades then 
returned to the Senate, and caused his fellow-polemarch, Ismenias, who 
was the head of the opposite, or patriotic party, to be seized and im- 
prisoned. After this blow, three hundred of the leading men of his party 
fled to Athens for safety. Ismenias was shortly afterwards brought to 
trial by Leontiades before a packed court, and put to death on the ground 
of his receiving money from Persia and stirring up the late war. 

This treacherous act during a period of profound peace awakened the 
liveliest indignation throughout Greece. Sparta herself could not venture 
to justify it openly, and Phoebidas was made the scape-goat of her affected 
displeasure. The Ephors, though they had secretly authorized the proceed- 
ing, now disavowed him ; and Agesilaus alone, prompted by his burning 
hatred of Thebes, stood forth in his defence. The result was a truly Laco- 
nian piece of hypocrisy. As a sort of atonement to the violated feeling of 
Greece, Phoebidas was censured, fined, and dismissed. But that this was a 
mere farce is evident from the fact of his subsequent restoration to com- 
mand ; and, however indignant the Lacedaemonians affected to appear at 
the act of Phoebidas, they took care to reap the fruits of it by retaining 
their garrison in the Cadmea. 

§ 5. The once haughty Thebes was now enrolled a member of the 
Lacedaemonian alliance, and furnished her contingent — the grateful offer- 
ing of the new Theban government — for the war which Sparta was pros- 
ecuting with redoubled vigor against Olynthus. The troops of that city, 
however, especially its cavalry, were excellent, and the struggle was pro- 
tracted for several years. During the course of it King Agesipolis died of 
a fever brought on by his exertions ; and the war, which had begun in 



430 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chaf. XXXIX, 

B. c. 383, was ultimately brought to a close by his successor, Polybiades, 
in B. c. 379 : who, by closely blockading Olynthus, deprived it of its sup- 
plies, and thus forced it to capitulate. The Olynthian confederacy was 
now di.^soIved ; the Grecian cities belonging to it were compelled to join 
the Lacedccmonian alliance ; whilst the maritime towns of Macedonia were 
again reduced under the domination of Amyntas. Sparta thus inflicted a 
great blow upon Hellas ; for the Olynthian confederacy might have served 
as a counterpoise to the growing power of Macedon, destined soon to over- 
whelm the rest of Greece. 

About the same time as the reduction of Olynthus, Phlius yielded to 
the arms of Agesilaus, who, on the complaint of the restored exiles that 
they could not obtain a restitution of their rights, had undertaken the 
siege of that city. A government nominated by Agesilaus was now 
appointed there. 

§ 6. The power of Sparta on land had now attained its greatest height. 
At sea, she divided with Athens the empire of the smaller islands, whilst 
the larger ones seem to have been independent of both. Her unpopu- 
larity in Greece was commensurate with the extent of her harshly 
administered dominion. She was leagued on all sides with the enemies of 
Grecian freedom, — with the Persians, with Amyntas of Macedon, and 
with Dionysius of Syracuse. But she had now reached the turning-point 
of her fortunes, and her successes, which had been earned without scruple, 
were soon to be followed by misfortunes and disgrace. The first blow 
came from Thebes, where she had perpetrated her most signal injustice. 

§ 7. That city had been for three years in the hands of Leontiades and 
the Spartan party. During this time great discontent had grown up 
among the resident citizens ; and there was also the party of exasperated 
exiles, who had taken refuge at Athens. Among these exiles was Pelopi- 
das, a young man of birth and fortune, who had ah-eady distinguished 
himself by his disinterested patriotism and ardent character. He apphed 
a great part of his wealth to the relief of his indigent fellow-citizens, and 
gave such undivided attention to public affairs as to neglect the manage- 
ment of his own property. 

Pelopidas took the lead in the plans now formed for the liberation of 
his country, and was the heart and soul of the enterprise. Rebuked by 
his friends on account of his carelessness, he replied that money was cer- 
tainly useful to such as were lame and blind. His warm and generous 
heart was irresistibly attracted by everything great and noble ; and hence 
he was led to form a close and intimate friendship with Epameinondas, 
who was several years older than himself, and of a still loftier char- 
acter. Their friendship is said to have originated in a campaign in 
which they served together, when, Pelopidas having fallen in battle ap- 
parently dead, Epameinondas protected his body at the imminent risk 
of his own life. Pelopidas afterwards endeavored to persuade Epamei* 



B. C. 379.] LIBERATION OF THEBES. 431 

nondas to share his riches with him ; and when he did not succeed, he 
resolved to live on the same frugal fare as his great friend. A secret 
correspondence was opened with his friends at Thebes, the chief of whom 
were Phyllidas, secretary to the polemarchs, and Charon. Epameinondas 
was solicited to take a part in the conspiracy ; but, though he viewed the 
Lacedsemonian government with abhorrence, his principles forbade him to 
participate in a plot which was to be carried out by treachery and 
murder. 

The dominant faction, besides the advantage of the actual possession of 
power, was supported by a garrison of fifteen hundred Lacedgeraoriians. 
The enterprise, therefore, was one of considerable difficulty and danger. 
In the execution of it Phyllidas took a leading part. It was arranged that 
he should give a supper to Archias and Philippus, the two polemarchs, 
whose company was to be secured by the allurement of an introduction to 
some Theban women remarkable for their beauty. After they had par- 
taken freely of wine, the conspirators were to be introduced, di.-guii^ed as 
women, and to complete their work by the assassination of the polemarchs. 
On the day before the banquet, Pelopidas, with six other exiles, arrived 
at Thebes from Athens, and, straggling through the gates towards dusk in 
the disguise of rustics and huntsmen, arrived safely at the house of Charon, 
where they remained concealed till the appointed hour. Before it arrived, 
however, a summons which Charon received to attend the polemarchs 
filled the conspirators with the liveliest alarm. These magistrates, whilst 
enjoying the good cheer of Phyllidas, received a vague message from 
Athens respecting some plot formed by the exiles ; and, as Charon was 
known to be connected Avith them, he was immediately sent for and ques- 
tioned. By the aid of Phyllidas, however, Charon contrived to lull the 
suspicions of the polemarchs, who were already half intoxicated. Shortly 
after the departure of Charon another messenger arrived from Athens 
with a letter for Archias, in which the whole plot was accurately detailed. 
The messenger, in accordance with his instructions, informed Archias that 
the letter related to matters of serious importance. But the polemarch, 
completely engrossed by the pleasures of the table, thrust the letter under 
the pillow of his couch, exclaiming, " Serious matters to-morrow." 

The hour of their fate was now ripe, and the polemarchs, flushed with 
wine, desired Phyllidas to introduce the women. The conspirators, dis- 
guised with veils, and in the ample folds of female attire, were ushered 
into the room. For men in the state of the revellers the deception was 
complete ; but when they attempted to lift the veils from the women, their 
passion was rewarded by the mortal thrust of a dagger. After thus slaying 
the two polemarchs, the conspirators went to the house of Leontiades, 
whom they found reclining after supper, whilst his wife sat spinning by his 
side. Leontiades, who was strong and courageous, immediately seized his 
sword and inflicted a mortal wound on one of the conspirators, but was at 



432 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXIX. 

length overpowered and killed by Pelopidas. Then the conspirators pro- 
ceeded to the gaol, and, having liberated the prisoners, supplied them with 
arms. 

The news of the revolution soon spread abroad. Epameinondas, whose 
repugnance to these proceedings attached only to their secret and treacher- 
ous character, now appeared, accompanied by a few friends in arms. 
Proclamations were issued announcing that Thebes was free, and calling 
upon all citizens who valued their liberty to muster in the market-place. 
As soon as day dawned, and the citizens became aware that they were 
summoned to vindicate their liberty, their joy and enthusiasm were un- 
bounded. For the first time since the seizure of their citadel they met 
in public assembly ; the conspirators, being introduced, were crowned by 
the priests with wreaths, and thanked in the name of their country's gods ; 
whilst the assembly, with grateful acclamation, unanimously nominated 
Pelopidas, Charon, and Mellon as the first restored Boeotarchs. 

§ 8. Meanwhile the remainder of the Theban exiles, accompanied by a 
body of Athenian volunteers, assembled on "the frontiers of Boeotia; and, 
at the first news of the success of the conspiracy, hastened to Thebes to 
complete the revolution. The Lacedaemonian garrison sent to Thespiae 
and Plat^a for reinforcements ; but these were dispersed by the Theban 
cavalry before they could approach the gates. The Thebans, under their 
new Boeotarchs, were already mounting to the assault of Cadmea, when 
the Lacedaemonians capitulated, and were allowed to march out with the 
honors of war. But several of the Theban citizens of the Lacedaemonian 
party, who had taken refuge in the citadel, were put to death, and in some 
cases even their children shared their fate. The surrender of the Cadmea 
seems to have been a disgraceful dereliction of duty on the part of the 
three commanding Spartan harmosts ; nor are we surprised to hear that 
two of them were put to death, and the third fined and banished. 

§ 9. The news of this revolution gave a shock to the Lacedaemonian 
power throughout Greece. At Sparta itself it occasioned the greatest 
consternation. Although it was the depth of winter, the allied contingents 
were immediately called out, and an expedition undertaken against Thebes. 
As Agesilaus, being now more than sixty years of age, declined to take 
the command, it was assigned to his colleague, Cleombrotus, who pene- 
trated as far into Boeotia as Cynoscephalae ; but after remaining there 
sixteen days, he returned to Sparta without having effected anything, 
leaving, however, a third of his army at Thespise, under the command of 
Sphodrias. This expedition caused great alarm at Athens. The Lace- 
daemonians sent envoys to demand satisfaction for the part which the 
Athenians had taken in the Theban revolution. Among those who had 
aided and abetted the plot were two of the Strategi or generals, who were 
now sacrificed to the public security, one of them being condemned and 
executed, and the other, who fled before trial, sentenced to banishmenL 



B. C. 378.] ATHENIAN CONFEDERACY REORGANIZED. 433 

The Thebans, now fearing that the Athenians would remain quiet and 
leave them to contend single-handed against the Spartans, bribed Spho- 
drias to invade Attica. Accordingly Sphodrias set out from Thespije 
with the intention of surprising the Peirseus by night ; but being over- 
taken by dayhght whilst still on the Thriasian plain near Eleusis, he 
retreated, though not without committing various acts of depredation. 
This attempt excited the livehest indignation at Athens. The Lacedae- 
monian envoys still at Athens, were seized and interrogated, but exculpat- 
ed themselves from all knowledge of the enterprise. Sphodrias himself 
was indicted for it at Sparta, but the influence of Agesilaus procured his 
acquittal. His escape was denounced by the unanimous voice of Greece. 
At Athens it at once produced an alliance with Thebes, and a declaration 
of war against Sparta (b. c. 378). 

§ 10. From this time must be dated the era of a new political combi- 
nation in Greece. Athens strained every nerve to organize a fresh 
confederacy. She already possessed the nucleus of one in a small body 
of maritime allies, and envoys were now sent to the principal ports and 
islands in the .^gean, inviting them to join the alliance on equal and 
honorable terms. Thebes did not scruple to enroll herself as one of its 
earliest members. At Athens itself the fortifications of Peirasus were 
completed, new ships of war were built, and every means taken to insure 
naval supremacy. The basis on which the confederacy was formed 
closely resembled that of Delos. The cities composing it were to be in- 
dependent, and to send deputies to a congress at Athens, for the purpose 
of raising a common fund for the support of a naval force. Care was 
taken to banish all recollections connected with the former unpopulai'ity 
of the Athenian empire. The name of the tribute was no longer phoros,* 
but syntaxis,\ or " contribution " ; and all previous rights of cleruchia were 
formally renounced. The confederacy, which ultimately numbered sev- 
enty cities, was chiefly organized through the exertions of Chabrias, of 
Timotheus the son of Conon, and of the orator Callistratus ; but of these 
Timotheus was particularly successful in procuring accession^; to the 
league. 

§ 11. The first proceeding of the assembled congress was to vote twenty- 
thousand hoplites, five hundred cavalry, and two hundred triremes. To 
meet the necessary expenses, a new graduated assessment of the eisphora,X 
or property tax, was instituted at Athens itself (b. c. 378) ; a species of 
tax never imposed except on urgent occasions. These proceedings show 
the ardor with which Athens embarked in the war. Nor were the The- 
bans less zealous, amongst whom the Spartan government had left a lively 
feeling of antipathy. They hastened to enroll themselves under Pelopidas 
and his colleagues ; the most fertile portion of the Theban territory was 

* (popos. t (rvvTo^is. X ela(j)opd. 

55 



434 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XXXIX. 

Burroun(ied with a ditch and palisade, in order to protect it from iavasion ; 
the military force was put in the best training, and the famous " Sacred 
Band " was now for the first time instituted. This band was a regiment 
of three hundred hoplites. It was supported at the public expense, and 
kept constantly under arms. It was composed of young and chosen citi- 
zens of the best families, and organized in such a manner that each man 
had at his side a dear and intimate friend. Its special duty was the de- 
fence of the Cadmea. 

§ 12. The Thebans had always been excellent soldiers ; but their good 
fortune now gave them the greatest general that Greece had hitherto 
Been. Epameinondas, who now appears conspicuously in public life, 
deserves the reputation, not merely of a Theban, but of a Grecian hero. 
Sprung from a poor but ancient family, Epameinondas possessed all the 
best qualities of his nation, without that heaviness, either of body or mind, 
which characterized and deteriorated the Theban people. In the ex- 
ercises of the gymnasium he aimed rather at feats of skill, than of mere 
corporeal strength. He excelled in music, — a term which among the 
Greeks denoted not only instrumental and vocal performance, and dancing, 
but also the just and rhythmical intonation of the voice and movement 
of the body. To these accomplishments he united the more intellectual 
study of philosophy. Through the Theban Simmias, and the Tarentine 
Spintharus, both of whom had been companions of Socrates, Epameinondas 
imbibed the wisdom and the method of the great philosopher of Athens ; 
whilst by the Pythagorean Lysis, a Tarentine exile resident at Thebes, 
he was initiated into the more recondite doctrines of the earhest of Grecian 
sages. By these varied communications his mind was enlarged bc^yond 
the sphere of vulgar superstition, and emancipated from that timorous 
interpretation of nature, which caused even some of the leading men of 
those days to behold a portent in the most ordinary phenomenon. A still 
rarer accomplishment for a Theban was that of eloquence, which he 
possessed in no ordinary degree. These intellectual qualities were matched 
with moral virtues worthy to consort with them. Though eloquent, he 
was discreet ; though poor, he was neither avaricious nor corrupt ; though 
naturally firm and courageous, he was averse to cruelty, violence, and 
bloodshed ; though a patriot, he was a stranger to personal ambition, and 
scorned the little arts by which popularity is too often courted. Pelopi- 
das, as we have already said, was his bosom friend. It was natural, 
therefore, that, when Pelopidas was named Boeotarch, Epameinondas 
should be prominently employed in organizing the means of war ; but it was 
not till some years later that his miUtary genius shone forth in its full lustre. 

§ 13. The Spartans were resolved to avenge the repulse they had 
received, and in the summer of b, c. 378, Agesilaus marched with a 
large army into Boeotia, He succeeded in breaking through the Theban 
circumvallation, and ravaged the country up to the very gates of Thebes 



B. C. 376.] ^ BATTLE OF NAXOS. 435 

though the combmed Theban and Athenian armies — the latter under 
Chabrias — presented too formidable a front for him to venture upon an 
engagement. After spending a month in the Boeotian territory without 
striking a decisive blow, Agesilaus returned to Sparta with the bulk of his 
army, leaving the rest under the command of Phoebidas at Thespise;: 
who shortly afterwards fell in a skirmish. A second expedition under- 
taken by Agesilaus in the following summer (b. c. 377) ended much in 
the same manner. An injury to his leg, which he received on the home- 
ward march, and which was aggravated by the unskilfulness of his surgeon, 
disabled him for a long time from active service ; so that the invasion in 
the summer of b. c. 376 was conducted by Cleombrotus. But the Thebans 
had now acquired both skill and confidence. They anticipated the Lace- 
daemonians in seizing the passes of Citheron ; and Cleombrotus, instead 
of invading Boeotia, was forced to retreat ingloriously. 

§ 14. This ill-success on land determined the Lacedaemonians to try 
what they could effect at sea ; and a fleet of sixty triremes under Pollio 
was accordingly despatched into the JEgean. Near Naxos they fell in 
with the Athenian fleet under Chabrias, who completely defeated them, 
thus regaining once more for Athens the mastery of the seas (b. c. 376). 
It was on this occasion that young Phocion first distinguished himself. 
The Athenians followed up this success by sending Timotheus, the son of 
Conon, with a fleet into the western seas. Timotheus won success as much 
by prudence and conciliation as by arms. The inhabitants of Cephallenia 
and Corcyra, several of the tribes of Epeirus, together with the Acama- 
nians dwelling on the coast, were persuaded to join the Athenian alliance. 
Off Acarnania he was attacked by the Peloponnesian fleet, wluch however 
he defeated; and being subsequently reinforced by some triremes from 
Corcyra, he became completely master of the seas in that quarter. 

§ 1 0. The justice and forbearance, however, which Timotheus observed 
towards friends and neutrals, obliged him to draw lai-gely upon the 
Athenian treasury; and the losses inflicted on the Athenian commerce 
by the privateers of -^gina caused the drain to be still more seriously felt. 
Athens was thus compelled to make fresh demands on the members of the 
confederacy ; with which, however, the Thebans refused to comply, though 
it was partly at their instance that the Athenian fleet had been sent into 
the ^gean. This refusal was embittered by jealousy of the rapid strides, 
which, owing to the diversion caused by the maritime efforts of Athens, 
Thebes had recently been making. For two years Bceotia had been free 
from Spartan invasion ; and Thebes had employed this time in extending 
her dominion over the neighboring cities. One of her most important 
successes during this period was the victory gained by Pelopidas near 
Tegyra, a village dependent upon Orchomenus (b. c. 375). The Spartan 
harmost of Orchomenus having left that town with the greater part of the 
garrison in order to make an incursion into Locris, Pelopidas formed the 



436 



HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XXXO. 



project of surprising Orchomenus, but, finding it impracticable, was on Ms 
road home, when he fell in near Tegyra with the Lacedaemonians on their 
return from Locris. Pelopidas had with him only the Sacred Band and 
a small body of cavalry, while the Lacedgemonians were nearly twice as 
numerous. He did not, however, shrink from the conflict on this account ; 
and when one of his men, running up to him, exclaimed, " We are fallen 
into the midst of the enemy," he replied, " Why so, more than they mto the 
midst of us ? " In the battle which ensued, the two Spartan commanders 
fell at the first charge, and their men were put to the rout. So signal a 
victory inspired the Thebans with new confidence and vigor, as it showed 
that Sparta was not invincible even in a pitched battle and with the ad- 
vantage of numbers on her side. By the year 374 b. c, the Thebans had 
succeeded in entirely expelling the Lacedaemonians from Boeotia, had put 
down the oligarchical factions in the various cities, and revived the 
Boeotian confederacy. Orchomenus alone, which lay on the borders of 
Phocis, together with its dependency Chaeronea, still remained under 
Spartan government. The Thebans now began to look beyond their own 
boundaries, and to retahate on the Phocians for the assistance they had lent 
to Sparta. The success of the Thebans in that quarter would have laid 
open to them the temple of Delphi with all its treasures ; nor did such a 
result seem improbable, as the Phocians were at the same time hard 
pressed by Jason of Pherae in Thessaly. But at the instance of the 
Phocians Cleombrotus came to their aid, and succeeded in assuring their 
safety, as well as that of Orchomenus. 

§ 16. Such were the successes of the Thebans which revived the jeal- 
ousy and distrust of Athens. Phocis was her ancient ally ; and the The- 
ban menace of that country, coupled with the anger excited by the refusal 
of the Thebans to pay the required tribute, induced the Athenians to make 
proposals of peace to Sparta. These were eagerly adopted, and Timo- 
theus was instructed to sail back to Athens with the fleet. The peace, 
however, was broken almost as soon as made. On his way back, Timo- 
theus disembarked at Zacynthus some exiles belonging to that island, and 
assisted them in establishing a fortified post. For this proceeding Sparta 
demanded jedress at Athens in the name of the Zacynthian government ; 
which bemg refused, war was again declared. The Lacedaemonians now 
sent a large force under the command of Mnasippus to subdue the impor- 
tant island of Corcyra, which has not appeared in Grecian history since 
the time of the fearful dissensions by which it was torn asunder in the 
Peloponnesian war. Mnasippus having effected a landing and blockaded 
the capital, the Corcyrseans invoked the aid of the Athenians, who appoint- 
ed Timotheus to conduct a fleet to their relief; and whilst this was 
preparing despatched Stesicles with six hundred peltasts overland through 
Thessaly and Epeirus. These, being conveyed across the channel to 
Corcyra, contrived to get into the city, and revived the hopes of the 



B.C. 371.] PEACE BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA. 437 

besieged with the news of the approaching Athenian fleet. The distress 
and privation had now become very great vvithm the city ; but the mis- 
conduct of Mnasippus afforded the Corcyraeans an opportunity of retrieving 
their affairs. His soldiers, who were mostly mercenaries, being irregular- 
ly paid and harshly treated, became mutinous and insubordinate ; the 
watch was badly kept; and the besieged, observing their opportunity, 
made a sally, in which the Lacedasmonians were defeated and Mnasippus 
himself slain. Shortly afterwards, the approach of the Athenian fleet 
being announced, the Lacedaemonians hastily evacuated the island, leav- 
ing behind them a large store of provisions and many slaves, besides 
a considerable number of sick and wounded soldiers. 

When the Athenian fleet arrived, it was found to be commanded by 
Iphicrates, Chabrias, and the orator Callistratus. Timotheus had beeu 
superseded in the command, because he was thought to have wasted time 
unnecessarily in equipping the fleet. Ipliicrates, soon after his arrival at 
Corcyra, captured nine out of ten triremes sent by Dionysius of Syracuse 
to the assistance of Sparta. From thence he crossed over to the opposite 
coast of Acarnania, and even laid waste the western shores of Pelopon- 
nesus. 

§ 17. These successes of the Athenians occasioned great alarm at 
Sparta. Antalcidas was again despatched (b. c. 372) to solicit the inter- 
vention of Persia, on the plea that the peace had been infringed by the 
re-establishraeut of the Boeotian confederation. But even Athens had 
become anxious for peace, in consequence of the increasing jealousy of 
Thebes, which had recently destroyed the restored city of Platsea, and 
obliged its inhabitants once more to seek refuge at Athens. Prompted by 
these feelings, the Athenians opened negotiations for a peace with Sparta ; 
a resolution which was also adopted by the majority of the allies. Due 
notice of this intention was given to the Thebans, who were also invited to 
send deputies to Sparta. 

§ 18. A congress was accordingly opened in that city in the spring of 
371 B. c. The Athenians were represented by Callias, Autocles, and 
Callistratus; and the Thebans by Epameinondas, then one of the pole- 
marchs. The terms of a peace Avere agreed upon, by which the inde- 
pendence of the various Grecian cities was to be recognized ; the 
armaments on both sides were to be disbanded, and the Spartan harmosts 
and garrisons everywliere dismissed. Sparta ratified the treaty for herself 
and her allies ; but Athens took the oaths only for herself, and was fol- 
lowed separately by her allies. But when the turn of the Thebans came, 
Epameinondas refused to sign except in the name of the Boeotian confed- 
eration, and justified his refusal in a bold and eloquent speech, in which 
he maintained that the title of Thebes to the headship of Bceotia rested on 
as good a foundation as the claim of Sparta to the sovereignty of Laconia, 
which he maintained was derived only from the power of the sword. 



43d 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XXXIX 



This novel and startling view of the matter, which nobody before had even 
ventured to open, was peculiarly insuhing to Spartan ears. Agesilaua 
was incensed beyond measure at what he regarded as another instance of 
Theban insolence. Starting abruptly from his seat, and addressing 
Epameinondas, he exclaimed : " Speak out, — will you, or will you not 
leave each Bccotian city independent ? " Epameinondas replied by another 
question: " WiU you leave each of the Laconian towns mdependent?" 
Agesilaus made no answer, but, directing the name of the Thebans to be 
struck out of the treaty, proclaimed them excluded from it. 

Tims ended the congress. The peace concluded between Sparta, 
Athens, and their respective allies, was called the peace of Callias. The 
result with regard to Thebes and Sparta will appear in the following 
jhapter. 




The Wind Boreas, from the Horologium of Andronicus Cyrrhestes at Athem. 



B, C. 371.] DESIKE AT SPARTA TO CKUS 



SII THEBES. 



439 




Ithome, from the Stadium of Messene. 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE SUPREMACY OF THKBES. 

I 1. Invasion of Boeotia by Cleombrotus. §2. Rattle of Leiic'^ra. §3. Its Effect throughout 
Greece. § 4. Jason of Pherfc join? the Thebaiis. § 5. Progress of Thebes. § 6. Assas- 
sination of Jason. § 7. Establishment of tlie Arcadian League. § 8. First Invasion of 
Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. Alarm at S|)arta. \'igorous Measures of Agesilaus. 
4 9. Epameiiioudas founds Megalopolis, and restore^ tlie Slessenians. § 10. Alliance 
between Athens and Sparta. Second Invasion of Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. 
4 11. Invasion of Laconia by the Arcadians. ^ 12. Expedition of Pelopidas into Thessaly. 
The '• Tearless Battle '" between the Arcadians and Lacedajnionians. ^ 13. Third Inva- 
sion of Peloponnesus by Epameinondas. § 14. Mission of Pelopidas to the Court of Susa. 
§ 15. Seizure of Pelopidas by Alexander. His Release. § 16. 'i'be Athenians acquire 
Oropus. Alliance between Athens and Arcadia. § 17. Attempt of the Athenians to 
seize Corinth, followed by an Alliance between the Corinthians and Thebans. § IS. Sue 
cess of the Athenians at Sea. A Tlieban Fleet connnanded by Ep:mieinondas. § 19. 
Death of Pelopidas. § 20. Wars Ijetween Elis and Arcadia. Rattle at Olympia during 
the Festival. § 21. Dissensions among the Arcadians. § 22 Fourth Invasion of Pelo- 
ponnesus by Epameinondas. Attempts upon Sparta and Mantinea. ^ 23. Battle of 
Mantinea, and Death of Epam.einoudas. § 24. Death of Agesilaus. 



§ J, In pursuance of the treaty, the Lacedaemonians withdrew their liar- 
mosts and garrisons, whilst the Athenians recalled Iphicrates with the 
fleet from the Ionian Sea. Only one feeling prevailed at Sparta, — a 
desire to crush Thebes ; and this was can-ied to an almost insane extent ; 
so that even Xenophon, a warm partisan of the Lacedivmonians, compares 
it to the misleading and fatal inspiration of the Homeric Ate. But thia 



i-40 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XL 

was an afterthought. Before the actual collision, the general opinion, 
not only at Sparta, but throughout Greece, was very different. Thebes 
was regarded as doomed to destruction ; and it was not for a moment _ 
imagined that, single-handed, she would be able to resist the might of 
Sparta. At the time when the peace was concluded, Cleombrotus hap- 
pened to be in Phocis at the head of a Lacedtemonian army ; and he now 
received orders to invade Boeotia without delay. The Thebans, on their 
side, were equally determined on resistance. In order to prevent Cleom- 
brotus from penetrating into Boeotia, Epameinondas occupied with a 
strong force the narrow pass near Coronea, situated between the Lake 
Copais and a spur of Mount Helicon, through which Agesilaus had forced 
a passage on his homeward march from Asia. But Cleombrotus took a 
circuitous road, deemed hardly practicable, and therefore but slightly 
guarded, over the mountains to the south. Arriving thus unexpectedly 
before Creusis on the CrissEsan Gulf, he took that place by surprise, and 
seized twelve Theban triremes which lay in. the harbor. Then, having 
left a garrison in the town, he directed his march through the ten-itory of 
Thespiie, and encamped on the memorable plain of Leuctra. 

§ 2. This march of Cleombrotus displays considerable military skill. 
He had not only succeeded in penetrating into Bceotia almost without 
opposition ; but, by seizing the port of Creusis, he had secured a safe 
retreat in case of disaster. The Thebans were discouraged at his progress, 
and it required all the energy and address of Epameinondas and Pelopidas 
to revive their drooping spirits. Omens of evil import had attended their 
march from Thebes ; and when they encamped within sight of the Lace- 
dgemonians, three out of the seven Bceotarchs were for returning to the 
city and shutting themselves up in it, after sending away their wives and 
children to Athens. But Epameinondas had too much confidence in his 
own genius to listen to such timorous counsels. His own mind was proof 
against the fears of superstition, and luckily some favorable portents now 
gave encouragement to his troops. A Spartan exile serving with the 
Thebans bade them remark, that on that very spot stood the tomb of two 
Boeotian virgins who slew themselves in consequence of having been 
outraged by Lacediemonians. The shades of these injured maidens, he 
said, would now demand vengeance ; and the Theban commanders, seizing 
the omen, crowned the tombs with wreaths. 

The forces on each side are not accurately known, but it seems probable 
that the Thebans were outnumbered by the Lacedtemonians. The mili- 
tary genius of Epameinondas, however, compensated any inferiority of 
numbers by novelty of tactics. Up to this time Grecian battles had been 
uniformly conducted by a general attack in line. Epameinondas now first 
adopted the manoeuvre, used with such success by Napoleon in modern 
times, of concentrating heavy masses on a given point of the enemy's 
array. Having formed his left wing into a dense column of fifty deep, so 



B. C. 371] BATTLE OF LEUCTRA. 441 

that its depth was greater than its front, he directed it against the Lace- 
daemonian right, containing the best troops in their army, drawn up twelve 
deep, and led by Cleombrotus in person. Meanwhile the Theban centre 
and right were ordered to be kept out of action, and in readiness to sup- 
port the advance of the left wing. The battle began with skirmishes of 
cavalry in front, in which the Lacedtemonian horse were soon driven in. 
The Theban left, the Sacred Band with Pelopidas at their head, leading 
the van, now fell with such irresistible weight on the Lacedasmonian right, 
as to bear down all opposition. Tlie shock was terrible. Cleombi'otus 
himself was mortally wounded in the onset, and with difficulty carried off 
by his comrades. Numbers of his officers, as well as of his men, were 
slain, and the whole wing was broken and driven back to their camp. On 
no other part of the line was there any serious fighting ; partly owing to 
the disposition made by Epameinondas, and partly to the lukewarmness of 
the Spartan allies, who occupied the centre and part of the right wing. 
The loss of the Thebans was small compared with that of the Lacedsemo- 
nians. Out of seven hundred Spartans in the army of the latter, four 
hundred had fallen ; and their king also had been slain, an event which 
had not occurred since the fatal day of Thermopylae. Many of their allies 
hardly concealed the satisfaction which they felt at their defeat ; whilst 
60 great was the depression among the Lacedaemonians themselves, that 
very few were found bold enough to propose a renewal of the combat, in 
order to recover the bodies of the slain. The majority decided that a 
truce should be solicited for that purpose. But, though the bodies of the 
fallen were given up, their arms were retamed ; aiid five centuries after- 
wards the shields of the principal Spartan officers were seen at Thebes 
by the traveller Pausanias. 

§ 3. The victory of Leuctra was gained within three weeks after the 
exclusion of the Thebans from the peace of Callias. The effect of it 
throughout Greece was electrical. It was everywhere felt that a new 
military power had ai'isen, — that the prestige of the old Spartan discipline 
and tactics had departed. Yet at Sparta itself, though the reverse was 
the gi-eatest that her arms had ever sustained, the news of it was received 
with an assumption of indifference characteristic of the people. The Ephors 
forbade the chorus of men, who were celebrating in the theatre the festival 
of the Gymnoj)aedia, to be interrupted. They contented themselves with 
directing the names of the slain to be communicated to their relatives, 
and with issuing an order forbidding the women to wail and mourn. Those 
whose friends had fallen appeared abroad on the morrow with joyful coun- 
tenances, whilst the relatives of the survivors seemed overwhelmed with 
grief and shame. The Ephors then directed their attention to the rescue 
of the defeated army. The whole remaining military force of Sparta, 
including even the more aged citizens, together with what forces could be 
collected from the alhes, was placed under the command of Archidamus, 
56 



442 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL 

son of Agesilaus, and transported by sea from Corinth to Creusis, which 
port now proved an invaluable acquisition. 

§ 4. Immediately after the battle the Thebans had sent to Jason of 
PheriB in Thessaly, to solicit his aid against the. Lacedaemonians. We 
have already had occasion to mention this despot, who was one of the most 
remarkable men of the period. He was Tagus,* or Generalissimo, of all 
Thessaly ; and Macedonia was partially dependent on him. He was a 
man of boundless ambition, and meditated nothing less than extending his 
dominion over the whole of Greece, for which his central situation seemed 
to offer many facilities. Upon receiving the invitation of the Tliebans, 
Jason immediately resolved to join them, and marched with such rapidity 
that he forestalled all opposition, though he had to proceed through the 
hostile territories of the Heracleots and Phocians. When he arrived, the 
Thebans were anxious that he should unite with them in an attack upon 
the Lacedeemonian camp ; but Jason dissuaded them from the enterprise, 
advising them not to drive the Laceda3monia,ns to despair, and offering his 
mediation. He accordingly succeeded in effecting a truce, by which the 
Lacedaemonians were allowed to depart from Boeotia unmolested. Their 
commander, however, did not trust to this ; but, having given out that he 
meant to march over Mount Citha3ron, he decamped in the night to Creu»- 
sis, and from thence proceeded by a difficult road along the side of the 
rocks upon the coast to -lEgosthena in the Megarid ; where he w is met 
by Archidamus and his army. As the defeated troops were now in safety, 
the object of the latter had been attained, and the whole armament was 
disbanded. 

§ 5. Accoi-ding to Spartan custom, the survivors of a defeat were looked 
upon as degraded men, and subjected to the penalties of civil infamy. No 
allowance was made for circumstances. But those who had fled at Leuc- 
tra were three hundred in number ; an attempt to enforce against them 
the usual penalties might prove not only inconvenient, but even danger- 
ous ; and on the proposal of Agesilaus, they were, for this occasion only, 
suspended. The loss of material power which Sparta sustained by the 
defeat was great. The ascendency she had hitherto enjoyed in parts north 
of the Corinthian Gulf fell from her at once, and was divided between Ja- 
son of Pherfe and the Thebans. The latter, flushed by success, now 
panted for nothing but military glory, and under the superintendence of 
Epameinondas devoted themselves to an active course of warlike training. 
Their alliance was sought on every side. The Phocians were the first 
to claim it, and their example was soon followed by the Eubceans, the Lo- 
crians, the Malians, and the Heracleots. In this flood-tide of power the 
Thebans longed to take vengeance on their ancient enemy, Orchomenos, 
to destroy the town, and to sell the inhabitants for slaves ; and from this 

* Tayos. 



B. C. 370.] JASON OF PHEK^. 443 

design they were only diverted by ike mildness and wisdom of Epamei- 
nondas. But the Orchomenians were forced to make tlieir submission, and 
were then readmitted as members of the Bccotian confederation. The 
same lenity was not extended to the Thespians, who were expelled from 
Bceotia, and their territory annexed to Thebes. They took refuge, like 
the Platseans, at Athens. 

§ 6. At the same time Jason of Pherse was also extending his influence 
and power. It was known that he was revolving some important enter- 
prise, but it was doubtful whether he would turn his arms against the 
Persians, against the cities of Chalcidice, or against the states of Southern 
Greece. After the battle of Leuctra the last seemed the most probable. 
He had announced his intention of being present at the Pythian festival, 
which was to take place in August, 370 b. c, at the head of a numerous 
army ; on which occasion his sacrifice to the Delphian god was to consist 
of the enormous quantity of one thousand bulls, and ten thousand sheep, 
goats, and swine. But it was unpleasant tidings for Grecian ears to learn 
that he intended to usurp the presidency and management of the festival, 
which w^ere the prerogatives of the Amphictyonic Council. In this con- 
juncture the alarmed Delphians consulted the god as to what they should 
do in case Jason approached their treasury, and received for answer that 
he would himself take care of it. Shortly afterwards the despot was as- 
sassinated by seven youths as he sat in public to give audience to all 
comers. The death of Jason was felt as a relief by Greece, and especially 
by Thebes. He was succeeded by his two brothers Polyphi-on and Poly- 
dorus ; but they possessed neither his ability nor his power. 

§ 7. The Athenians stood aloof from the contending parties. They 
had not received the news of the battle of Leuctra with any pleasure, for 
they now dreaded Thebes more than Sparta. But instead of helping the 
latter, they endeavored to prevent either from obtaining the supremacy 
in Greece, and for this purpose called upon the other states to form a new 
alliance upon the terms of the peace of Antalcidas. Most of the Pelo- 
ponnesian states joined this new league ; but the Eleans declined, on the 
ground that they would thus deprive themselves of their sovereignty over 
the Triphylian cities. 

Thus even the Peloponnesiari cities became independent of Sparta. But 
this was not all. Never did any state fall with greater rapidity. She not 
only lost the dominion over states which she had exercised for centuries ; 
but two new political powers sprung up in the peninsula, which threatened 
her own independence. The first of these was the Arcadian confedera- 
tion, established a few months after the battle of Leuctra ; the second was 
the new Messenian state, founded by Epameinondas two years later. 

It has been related how the Lacedaemonians had some years previously 
broken up Mantinea into its five original villages, and thus degraded it 
from the rank of a city. The Mantineans, assisted by the Arcadians pt 



444 HISTORT OF GREECE. [ChAP. XL. 

various other quarters, now availed tliemselves of the weakness of Sparta 
to rebuild their town. Its restoration suggested the still more extensive 
scheme of a union of all the Arcadian cities. Hitherto the Arcadians had 
been a race, and not a nation, having nothing in common but their name. 
The idea of uniting them into a federal state arose with Lycomedes, one 
of the leading men of the restored Mantinea. It was expected that the 
Thebans and Argives would lend their aid to the project, which was well 
received throughout the greater part of Arcadia, though opposed by Tegea 
and certain other cities jealous of Mantinea. The Spartans would not tamely 
allow such a formidable power to spring up at their very doors ; and, ac- 
cordingly, Agesilaus marched with a Lacedtemonian army against Manti- 
nea (b. c. 370). But the Mantineans were too prudent to venture on an 
engagement till reinforced by the Thebans, to whom they had applied for 
assistance ; and as they kept within their walls, Agesilaus, after ravaging 
their territory, marched back to Sparta. 

§ 8. Ever since the battle of Leucti'a, Epameinondas had been watching 
an opportunity for interfering in the affairs of Peloponnesus. But his 
views were not confined to the establishment of an Arcadian union. He 
also proposed to restore the exiled Messenians to their territory. That 
race had formerly lived under a dynasty of their own kings ; but for the 
last three centuries their land had been in the possession of the Lacedtemo- 
nians, and they had been fugitives upon the face of the earth. The res- 
toration of these exiles, now dispersed in various Hellenic colonies, to 
their former rights, would plant a bitterly hostile neighbor on the very 
borders of Laconia. Epameinondas accordingly opened communications 
with them, and numbers of them flocked to his standard during his march 
into Arcadia, late in the autumn of 370 b. c. He entered that country 
shortly after Agesilaus had quitted it, and, in addition to the Arcadians, 
was immediately joined by the Argives and Eleans. The combined force, 
including the Thebans, is estimated at seventy thousand men. Epamei- 
nondas, who had in reality the chief command, though associated with the 
other Boeotarchs, brought with him choice bodies of auxiliaries from Pho- 
cis, Loeris, and other places, and especially the excellent cavalry and pel- 
tasts of Thessaly. But it was the Theban bands themselves that were 
the object of universal admiration ; which, under the inspection of Epamei- 
nondas, had been brought into the highest state of discipline and effi- 
ciency. The Peloponnesian allies, elated at the sight of so large and so 
well appointed an army, pressed Epameinondas to invade Laconia itself, 
since his services were no longer required in Arcadia, in consequence of 
the retreat of Agesilaus. Although it was now mid-winter, he resolved, 
after some hesitation, to comply with their request. Dividing his army 
into four parts, he crossed without any serious opposition the mountains 
separating Arcadia from Laconia, and reunited his forces at Sellasia. 
From thence he marched to Amyclse, two or three miles below Sparta. 



B. C. 370.] EPAMEINONDAS INVADES PELOPONNESUS. 445 

where he crossed the river Eurotas, and then advanced cautiously towards 
the capitaL 

Sparta, which was wholly unfortified, was now filled with confusion and 
alarm. The women, who had never yet seen the face of an enemy, gave 
vent to their fears in wailing and lamentation. Moreover, the state was 
in great danger from her own intestine divisions. Not only was she 
threatened by the customary discontent of the Perioeci and Helots, but 
the large class of poor and discontented citizens called " Inferiors " looked 
with anger on the wealth and political power of the " Peers." * But the 
emergency was pressing, and called tor decisive measures. The Ephors 
ventured oa the step of offering freedom to such Helots as would enlist 
as hoplites tor the defence of the city. The call was responded to by no 
fewer than six thousand, who now inspired fear by their very numbers ; 
and the alarm was justified and heightened by the fact that a considerable 
body of Perioeci and Helots had actually joined the Thebans. 

In the midst of these pressing dangers, Sparta was saved by the vigi- 
lance and energy of her aged king Agesilaus. He repulsed the cavalry 
of Epameinondas as they advanced towards the city ; and so vigorous 
were his measures of defence, that Epameinondas abandoned all further 
attempt upon the city, and proceeded southwards as far as Helos and 
Gythium on the coast, the latter the port and arsenal of Sparta. After 
laying waste with fire and sword the valley of the Eurotas, he retraced 
his steps to the frontiers of Arcadia. 

§ 9. Epameinondas noAV proceeded to carry out the two objects for which 
his march had been undertaken ; namely, the consolidation of the Arca- 
dian confedei'ation, and the establishment of the Messenians as an inde- 
pendent community. In the prosecution of the former of these designs, 
the mutual jealous}^ of the various Arcadian cities rendered it necessary 
that a new one should be founded, which should be regarded as the capi- 
tal of the confederation. Consequently, a new city was built on the banks 
of the Helisson, called Megalopolis, and peopled by the inhabitants of forty 
distinct Arcadian townships. Here a synod of deputies from the towns 
composing the confederation, called " The Ten Thousand," f was to meet 
periodically for the despatch of business. A body of Arcadian troops, 
called Epariti, i was also levied for the purposes of the league. Epamei- 
nondas next founded the town of Messene. Its citadel was placed on the 
summit of Mount Itbome, which had three centuries before been so bravely 
defended by the INIessenians against the Spartans ; whilst the town itself 
was seated lower doA\m upon the western slope of the mountain, but con- 
ne'tted with its Acropolis by a continuous wall. The strength of its for- 
tifications was long afterwards a subject of admiration. The territory 
attached to the new city extended southwards to the Messenian Gulf, and 

* See p. 410. f Mvpiot. J 'EnapiToi. 



446 HISTOKT OT GREECE. [Chap. XL. 

northwards to the borders of Ai'cadia, comprising some of the most fertile 
land in Peloponnesus. 

In order to settle the affairs of Arcadia and Messenia, Epameinondas 
had remained in Peloponnesus four months after the legal period of his 
command had expired; for which offence he and the other Boeotarchs 
were arraigned on his return to Thebes. But they were honorably ac- 
quitted, Epameinondas having expressed his willingness to die if the The- 
bans would record that he was put to death because he had humbled 
Sparta, and taught his countrymen to conquer her armies. 

§ 10. So low had Sparta now sunk, that she was fain to send envoys 
to beg the assistance of the Athenians. This request was acceded to ; and 
shortly afterwards an alliance was formed between the two states, in which 
Sparta waived all her claims to superiority and headship. It was agreed 
that the command both on land and sea should alternate every five days 
between Athens and Sparta, and that their united forces should occupy 
Corinth and guard the passes of the Onean .Mountains across the isthmus, 
so as to prevent the Thebans from again invading Peloponnesus. Before 
this position Epameinondas appeared with his army in the spring of the 
year b. c. 369 ; and as all his attempts to draw on a battle proved una- 
vailing, he resolved on forcing his way through the hostile lines. Direct- 
ing his march just before daybreak against the position occupied by the 
Lacedjemonians, he succeeded in surprising and completely defeating them. 
He was thus enabled to form a junction with his allies in Peloponnesus, 
whilst the Lacedaemonians and Athenians do not appear to have stirred 
from their position. Sicyon now deserted Sparta and joined the Theban 
alliance ; but the little town of Phlius remained faithful to the Lacedaemo- 
nians, and successfully resisted all the attempts made to capture it. The 
Thebans were also defeated in an attempt upon Corinth ; and the spirits 
of the Spartan allies were still further raised by the arrival at Lechseum 
of a Syracusan squadron, bringing two thousand mercenary Gauls and 
Iberians, together with fifty horsemen, as a succor from the despot Dio- 
nysius. After a while, however, according to the usual desultory nature 
of Grecian warfare, both armies returned home without having achieved 
anything 'of importance. 

§ 11. Meanwhile the Arcadians, elate with their newly acquired power, 
not only believed themselves capable of maintaining their independence 
without foreign assistance, but thought themselves entitled to share the 
headship with Thebes, as Athens did with Sparta. Lycomedes, whom 
we have already mentioned as an able and energetic citizen of Mantinea, 
was the chief promoter of these ambitious views, and easily flattered the 
national vanity of his countrymen by appeals to their acknowledged cour- 
age and hardihood. They responded to his representations by calling 
upon him to lead them into active service, appointed him their commander, 
and chose all the officers whom he nominated. The first exploit of Ly- 



B. C 368.] THE TEARLESS BATTLE. 447 

comedes was to rescue the Argive troops in Epidaurus, where they were 
in great danger of being cut off by a body of Athenians and Corinthians 
under Chabrias. He then marched into the southwestern portion of 
Messenia, where he penetrated as far as Asine, defeated the Spartan com- 
tnander Geranor, who had drawn out the garrison to oppose him, and de- 
stroyed the suburbs of the town. It was probably by this expedition that 
the annihilation of the Spartan dominion in that quarter was completed. 
The hardihood and enterprise displayed in it excited everywhere both ad- 
miration and alarm ; but at Thebes it also occasioned jealousy. At the 
same time circumstances arose which tended to disunite the Arcadians 
and Eleans. The former objected to Elis resuming her sovereignty over 
the towns of Triphylia, which they had thought to regain after the decay 
of the Spartan supremacy. 

§ 12. During the year 368 b. c. the Thebans undertook no expedition 
into Peloponnesus; but Pelopidas conducted a Theban force into Thessaly 
for the purpose of protecting Larissa ajid other cities against the designs 
of Alexander, who, by the mui'der of his two brothers, had become despot 
of Pher^ and Tagus of Thessaly. Alexander was compelled to solicit 
peace ; and Pelopidas, after establishing a defensive league amongst the 
Thessalian cities, marched into Macedonia, when the regent Ptolemy en- 
tered into an alliance with the Thebans. Amongst the hostages given for 
the observance of this treaty was the youthful Philip, son of Amyntas, 
afterwards the celebrated king of Macedon, who remained for some years 
at Thebes. 

Shortly afterwards, the Lacedaemonians, under the command of Archi- 
damus, supported by the reinforcements sent by Dionysius, succeeded in 
routing the Arcadians with great slaughter, whilst not a single Lacedse- 
monian fell, whence the victory derived the name of "■ the Tearless Battle.^' 
The news of this defeat of the Arcadians was by no means unwelcome at 
Thebes, as it was calculated to check their presumption, and to show them 
that they could not dispense with Theban aid. 

§ 13. Epameinondas now resolved on another expedition into Pelopon- 
nesus, with the view of bringing the Acha^ans into the Theban alliance. 
Until the battle of Leuctra the cities of Achaia had been the dependent 
allies of Sparta ; but since that event they had remained free and neutral. 
On the approach of Epameinondas they immediately submitted, and con- 
sented to be enrolled among the allies of Thebes. That commander, with 
his usual moderation, did not insist upon any change in their governments. 
But this was made a subject of accusation against him at home. The Ar- 
cadians charged him with having left men in power in the Achnean cities 
who would join Sparta on the first opportunity. These accusations, being 
supported by the enemies of Epameinondas, prevailed : his proceedings 
in Achaia were reversed ; democratic governments were established in the 
various Achaean cities ; and in the fensuing year Epameinondas himself 



448 HISTORY OF GREECE. ^Chap. XL 

was not re-elected as Boeotarch. But the consequence was, that the 
exiles thus driven from the various Achjean cities, watching their oppor- 
tunity, succeeded in effecting counter-revolutions, and afterwards took a 
decided part with Sparta. 

§ 14. The Thebans now resolved to send an embassy to Persia. Ever 
since the peace of Antalcidas the Great King had become the recognized 
mediator between the states of Greece ; and his fiat seemed indispensable 
to stamp the claims of that city which pretended to the headship. The 
recent achievements of Tliebes might entitle her to aspire to that position ; 
and at all events the alterations which she had produced in the internal 
state of Greece, by the establishment of Megalopolis and Messene, seemed 
to require for their stability the sanction of a Persian rescript. For this 
purpose Pelopidas and Ismenias proceeded to the court of Susa, ap- 
parently in the years 367 — 366 b. c. They were accompanied by other 
deputies from the allies ; and at the same time the Athenians sent 
Timagoras and Leon to counteract their influence. Pelopidas may prob- 
ably have pleaded the former services of Thebes towards Persia at the 
time of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, as well as in having opposed 
the expedition of Agesilaus into Asia. But the great fact which influ- 
enced the decision of the Persian king would doubtless be, that Thebes 
was now the strongest state in Greece ; for it was evidently easier to 
exercise Persian ascendency there by her means, than through a weaker 
power. Pelopidas had therefore only to ask his own terms. A rescript 
"was issued declaring the independence of Messene and Amphipolis ; the 
Athenians were directed to lay up their ships of war in ordinary ; Thebes 
was declared the head of Greece ; and the dispute between EUs and 
Arcadia on the subject of the Triphylian cities was decided in favor of the 
former power : probably at the instance of Pelopidas, and on account of 
the estrangement now subsisting between Arcadia and Thebes. 

The Athenian and Arcadian envoys had attempted in vain to secure 
better terms for their own states. Antiochus, the representative of 
Arcadia, on his return to Megalopolis, vented his displeasure by a most 
depreciatory report to the Ten Thousand of all that he had seen during his 
journey. There were armies, he said, of cooks, confectioners, wine-bearers, 
and the like, but not a single man fit to fight against Greeks ; and even the 
vaunted golden plane-tree itself, he afiirmed, was too small to afford shade 
for a single grasshopper. The Thebans, on the contrary, made the most of 
their success. Deputies from the allied cities were summoned to Thebes 
to hear the royal rescript read; but it was coldly received by all 
present. Lycomedes, the Arcadian envoy, even protested against the 
headship claimed for Thebes, and asserted that the allied synod should 
not be exclusively convened in that city, but in the actual seat of war. 
After some angry language, the Arcadians withdrew from the assembly, 
and the other deputies seem to have followed their example. Nor were 



B. C. 366.] SEIZURE OF PELOPIDAS BY ALEXANDER. 44£ 

the Thebans more successful in an attempt to get the rescript recognized 
by sending it round to the various cities separately. 

§ 15. It was, in all probability, during a mission undertaken by Pelopi- 
das and Ismenias, for the purpose of procuring the acknowledgment of the 
rescript in Thessaly and the northern parts of Greece, that they were 
seized and imprisoned by Alexander of Pherae. That tyrant met them at 
Pharsalus under all the appearances of peace, but took occasion of their 
being without guards to seize and carry them off to Pherag. Such value 
was attached to the person of Pelopidas, that his imprisonment mduced 
several of the Thessalian partisans of Thebes to submit to Alexander. 
Even the Athenians did not disdain to avail themselves of this treacher- 
ous breach of public faith, and sent Autocles with a fleet of thirty tri- 
remes and one thousand hoplites to the support of Alexander. Meanwhile 
the justly incensed Thebans had despatched an army of eight thousand 
hoplites and six hundred cavalry, to recover or avenge their favorite 
citizen. Unfortunately, however, they were no longer commanded by 
Epameinondas, who, as we have related, had not been re-elected to the 
office of Bceotarch. Their present commanders were utterly incompetent. 
They were beaten and forced to retreat, and the army was in such danger 
from the active pursuit of the Thessalians and Athenians, that its destruc- 
tion seemed inevitable. Luckily, however, Epameinondas was serving as a 
hoplite in the ranks. By the unanimous voice of the troops he was now 
called to the command, and succeeded in conducting the army safely back 
to Thebes. Here the unsuccessful Boeotarchs were disgraced, and Epamei- 
nondas, whose reputation now shone forth more brilliantly than ever, 
was restored to the command, and placed at the head of a second Theban 
army destined to attempt the release of Pelopidas. Directed by his 
superior skill, the enterprise proved successful. Anxious, however, for 
the life of his friend, Epameinondas avoided reducing Alexander to such 
extremities as might induce him to make away with Pelopidas ; and thus, 
though the main object of the expedition was attained, it was not accom- 
panied with such striking and decisive results as to counterbalance the 
advantages which Alexander had derived from his treachery. 

§ 16. The acquirement of Oropus was, however, some compensation to 
the Thebans for their losses on the other side of their frontier. The 
possession of that town, which lay on the borders of Athens and Thebes, 
had long been a subject of contention between the two states. For many 
years past it had been in the hands of the Athenians ; but it w^as now 
seized by a party of exiles favorable to the Theban interest, and im- 
mediately occupied by a Theban garrison, which deprived the Athenians 
of all hopes of retaking it. The Athenians had been displeased at the 
want of zeal manifested by their Peloponnesian allies in not assisting them 
in the affair of Oropus ; and Lycomedes, who was disgusted with the 
Theban ascendency, took advantage of this feeling to negotiate an alli- 
57 



450 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL. 

ance between Arcadia and Athens. He procured himself to be appointed 
ambassador to that city, where he was favorably received, and pre- 
liminary arrangements made for an alliance ; but on his way home he 
was assassinated by some Arcadian exiles of the opposite party. The 
negotiations, however, proceeded. Callistratus was sent from Athens as 
ambassador to the Arcadian Ten Thousand, whilst Epameinondas hastened 
from Thebes, to counteract, if possible, the machinations of the eloquent 
Athenian. But though Epameinondas here displayed his ready talent in 
debate, he was unsuccessful. The Athenians concluded an alliance with 
Arcadia, but at the same time without formally breaking with Thebes. 

§ 17. This connection rendered it desirable for Athens to secure an 
uninterrupted communication with Peloponnesus, and for this purpose she 
formed the treacherous design of seizing Corinth by surprise. She was 
not only at peace, but in alliance, with that city ; and her auxiliaries were 
serving in the Corinthian forts and outposts. These, however, were to be 
the instruments of her treachery. Under pretence of a reinforcement, an 
armament under the command of Chares was despatched to Corinth. 
But the designs of Athens had reached the ears of the Corinthians, who 
refused to admit Chares into their port of Cenchrese ; and at the same 
time dismissed the other Athenians in their service, yet with all the 
appearance of good-will. Though thus saved for the moment, this step 
had placed the Corintliians in a state of isolation ; and they therefore 
resolved to open negotiations with Thebes for a general peace. Their 
overtures were weU received by the Thebans. A meeting of the allies 
was then convened at Sparta, in which the Corinthians set forth the 
necessity of their case, and endeavored to induce the rest of the confed- 
erates to follow their example in concluding a peace with Thebes, the 
terms of which were to be the independence of each individual city, 
including Messene ; but without recognizing the headship of Thebes, or 
entering into any formal alUance with her. On this basis a peace was 
accordingly concluded between Thebes, Corinth, Plilius, Epidaurus, and 
perhaps one or two other cities ; but as the Thebans made the inde- 
pendence of Messene an indispensable condition, Sparta resolutely refused 
to join it, and the larger states of Greece, Thebes, Athens, Sparta, Arca- 
dia, and others, still remained at war. 

§ 18. Athens availed herself of the distracted condition of Greece to 
extend her maritime empire. She had no longer occasion to dread any 
opposition from Sparta; and she accordingly sent a powerful fleet into 
the ^gean under the command of Timotheus, who succeeded in conquer- 
ing Samos, and in obtaining possession of Potideea, Pydna, Methone, and 
it is said even of Olynthus itself But in the midst of his success, he was 
menaced by the unexpected appearance of a Theban fleet. Epameinon- 
das, jealous of the maritune empire of Athens, had persuaded his country- 
men to try their strength on a new element. Sparta, he said, was 



B. C. 363.] DEATH OF PELOPIDAS. 451 

humbled; it was not she, but Athens, who was low their prominent 
enemy ; and he exhorted them not to rest content till they had transferred 
to the Theban Cadmea the Propyl^a which adorned the acropolis of 
Athens. A fleet of one hundred triremes was constructed, and he 
himself appointed to the command ; whilst envoys were sent to Rhodes, 
Chios, and Byzantium, to induce them to break with Athens. It was 
with this fleet that Epameinondas appeared in the Hellespont in b. c. 363. 
He seems, however, to have effected little, — at least nothing splendid is 
recorded, — and this expedition proved both the first and last of the 
Thebans by sea. 

§ 19. It was in the same year that his friend Pelopidas led an expedi- 
tion into Thessaly against Alexander of Pherae. Strong complaints of the 
tyranny of that despot arrived at Thebes, and Pelopidas, who probably 
also burned to avenge his private wrongs, prevailed upon the Thebans to 
send him into Thessaly to punish the tyrant. The forces he had collected 
were far inferior in number to those of Alexander ; and when informed at 
Pharsalus, that the tyrant was advancing towards him with a great army, 
he remarked that it was so much the better, since there would be more for 
him to conquer. The battle was fought on the hills of Cynoscephalae ; 
the troops of Alexander were routed ; and Pelopidas, observing his hated 
enemy endeavoring to rally them, was seized with such a transport of 
rage, that, regardless of his duties as a general, lie rushed impetuously 
forwards and challenged him to single combat. AJexander shrunk back 
within the ranks of his guards, followed impetuously by Pelopidas, who 
was soon slain, fighting with desperate bravery. Although the army of 
Alexander was defeated with severe loss, the news of the death of Pelopi- 
das deprived the Thebans and their Thessalian allies of all the joy which 
they would otherwise have felt at their victory. The Thebans, however, 
subsequently avenged the death of their general by sending a fresh force 
of seven thousand hoplites into Thessaly ; with which they compelled Al- 
exander to relinquish all his dependencies in that country, to confine him- 
self to the actual limits of Pherse, and to swear allegiance to Thebes. The 
Thebans thus acquired greater influence than they had ever before en- 
joyed in Northern Greece. 

§ 20. Meantime a war had been carried on between Elis and Arcadia. 
It has been already remarked, on more than one occasion, that the Eleans 
claimed the sovereignty of the Triphylian towns, in which they were 
backed by Sparta, but opposed by the Arcadians. The Eleans also laid 
claim to a tract of hilly ground lying north of the Alpheus, containing 
Lasion and some other towns which had been included in the Arcadian 
league. They seized Lasion by surprise, but were driven out again by 
the Arcadians, who afterwards took formal possession of the sacred dis- 
trict of Olympia. Other acts of hostility had occurred between the Eleana 
and Arcadians, and the former had called in the assistance of the Lace- 
daemonians, but without any decisive result. In 364 b. c. the Arcadians 



452 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL 

were still in possession of Olympia; and as the Olympic festival occurred 
in that year, they availed themselves of their situation to transfer the presi- 
dency of the games from the Eleans to the Pisatans, who had long laid 
claim to it. It was anticipated that the Eleans would assert then- rights 
by force ; and the Arcadians prepared to resist any attempt of that kind, 
not only by a large army of their own, but also by summoning their allies. 
The festival had already commenced, many of the games had been per- 
formed, and the wrestling match was going on, when bodies of the Eleans, 
and their allies, the Achgeans, were observed approaching the sacred 
ground. The Arcadians immediately rushed to arms, and formed on the 
bank of the little river Cladeus, to prevent their approach. The Eleans 
advanced with the utmost boldness, but were finally repulsed and obliged 
to retire. On this occasion the temple of the Olympian deity himself was 
converted into a fortress, and the majestic Zeus of Pheidias looked down 
with calm dignity upon those who were contending for the honor of cele- 
brating his festival. The Eleans subsequently avenged themselves by 
striking the 104th Olympiad out of the list of the festivals. 

§ 21. Not content with this insult to the Eleans, the Arcadians carried 
their insolence to the extent of sacrilege, by despoiling the rich temples 
of Olympia. But this act ripened the seeds of disunion which were al- 
ready springing up among the Arcadians themselves. The assembly of 
Mantinea passed an act renouncing all participation in the sacred spoil, 
and though the Ten Thousand attempted at first to seize the leading men 
at Mantinea as traitors to the Arcadian league, the views of the Mantine- 
ans respecting the employment of the sacred treasures were so evidently 
just, that even their opponents were at length shamed into them. Accord- 
ingly a peace was concluded with the Eleans, who were restored to all 
their rights with regard to Olympia. Since the Spartans had supported 
the Eleans, the Mantineans were naturally brought into close connection 
with the former ; whilst the rest of the Arcadians, and esjieciaUy the Te- 
geans, favored Thebes. Tegea thus became -the centre of Theban influ- 
ence in Arcadia, and was occupied by a Theban harmost and a garrison 
of three hundred Boeotians. The Thebans viewed the success of the Man- 
tineans and Spartan party with suspicion ; and when the peace, recently 
concluded, was sworn to at Tegea, they seized the principal members of 
the Spartan party. The news of this treacherous act was received with 
great indignation at Mantinea. Heralds were immediately despatched 
by the Mantineans to demand, the release of their own citizens. Here- 
upon the Theban harmost released the prisoners, protesting that he had 
been misled by a false report of the approach of a Spartan force, prepared 
to co-operate with a party within the walls in order to seize Tegea. The 
Mantineans and their party, however, were not satisfied with this apology, 
but sent envoys to Thebes, demanding the punishment of the harmost. 
Epameinondas, incensed that a peace had been concluded without the 
sanction of Thebes, justified the harmost's conduct, and bade the envoys 



B. C. 362.] BATTLE OF MANTINEA. 453 

carry back word that he would himself soon lead an army into Arcadia. 
The Mantineans and their partisans immediately made preparations for 
war, and sent ambassadors to request the assistance of the Lacedaemonians. 

§ 22. These events occurred in 362 b. c. and in the summer of that 
year Epameinondas undertook his fourth and last invasion of Pelopon- 
nesus. The proceedings in Arcadia, which threatened to undo all that 
he had done in that country, and ultimately to lead to an alliance between 
it and Sparta, were the motives for his expedition. His army was nu 
merous, and included many troops from Northern Greece. He marched 
without opposition to Tegea, where he was joined by such of the Arcadi- 
ans and other Peloponnesians as were favorable to the Theban cause. 
The other party concentrated themselves at Mantinea, whither the aged 
Agesilaus was marching with a Lacedgemonian force, whilst Athenian 
succors were also expected. Epameinondas, whose movements were 
characterized by decision and rapidity, resolved to surprise Sparta in the 
absence of Agesilaus by a sudden march upon it. Providentially, how- 
ever, a swift Cretan runner overtook Agesilaus in time to warn him of 
the danger. He got back to Sparta early enough to anticipate the attempt 
of Epameinondas ; and though that commander actually entered the city, 
yet he found the streets and houses so well defended, that he was fain 
to retire. The alarm caused by this diversion had however occasioned 
the recall of the Lacedaemonian army destined for Mantinea, and Epamei- 
nondas took advantage of that circumstance to attempt the surprise of 
that place. Fortunately for the Mantineans, the Athenian cavalry had 
reached their city an hour or two before the arrival of Epameinondas, 
and, though hungry and tii-ed with their march, succeeded in repulsing the 
Theban and Thessalian horse. Epameinondas now fell back upon Tegea. 

§ 23. Thus both these well-planned manoeuvres were accidentally frus- 
trated. As the enemy had now succeeded in concentrating their forces 
at Mantinea, it was clear that a general action was unavoidable. The 
plain between Tegea and Mantinea, though two thousand feet above the 
level of the sea, is shut in on every side by lofty mountains. In length 
it is about ten miles, whilst its breadth varies from one to eight. About 
four miles south of Mantinea it contracts to its narrowest dimensions, and 
here the Lacedtemonians and Mantineans took up their position. Epamei- 
nondas, in marching northwards from Tegea, inclined to the left, so 
as to skirt the base of Mount Maenalus, which bounds the plain on the 
west. On arriving in sight of the hostile lines, Epameinondas ordered liis 
troops to halt and ground arms. Hence the Lacedaemonians inferred 
that he did not mean to offer battle that day ; and so strong was this per- 
suasion, that they left their ranks, whilst some of the horsemen took off 
their breastplates and unbridled their horses. But meanwhile Epamei- 
nondas was making his dispositions for an attack. His plan very much 
resembled that of the battle of Leuctra. His chief reliance was upon the 
Boeotian troops, whom he had formed into a column of extraordinary depth. 



454 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL 

The enemy at length became aware of his intentions, and hurried into 
their ranks ; but they were in no condition to receive the onset of the The- 
ban hophtes, who bore down all before them. The Mantineans and Lace- 
daemonians turned and fled, and the rest followed their example. The 
day was won ; but Epameinondas, who fought in the foremost ranks, fell 
pierced with a mortal wound. His fall occasioned such consternation 
among his troops, that, although the enemy were in full flight, they did 
not know how to use their advantage, and remained rooted to the spot. 
Hence both sides subsequently claimed the victory and erected trophies, 
though it was the Lacedaemonians who sent a herald to request the bodies 
of the slain. 

Epameinondas was carried off the field with the spear-head still fixed 
in his breast. , Having satisfied himself that his shield was safe, and that 
the victory was gained, he inquired for lolaVdas and Daiphantus, whom 
he intended to succeed him in the command. Being informed that both 
were slain : " Then," he observed, " you must make peace." After this 
he ordered the spear-head to be withdrawn ; when the gush of blood which 
followed soon terminated his life. Thus died this truly great man; and 
never was there one whose title to that epithet has been less disputed. 
Antiquity is unanimous in his praise, and some of the first men of Greece 
subsequently took him for their model. With him the commanding in- 
fluence of Thebes began and ended. His last advice was adopted, and 
peace was concluded probably before the Theban army quitted Pelopon- 
nesus. Its basis was a recognition of the status quo, — to leave every- 
thing as it was, to acknowledge the Arcadian constitution and the inde- 
pendence of Messene. Sparta alone refused to join it on account of the 
last article, but she was not supported by her allies. 

§ 24. Agesilaus had lived to see the empire of Sparta extinguished by 
her hated rivah Thus curiously had the prophecy been fulfilled, which 
warned Sparta of the evils awaiting her under a " lame sovereignty." 
But Agesilaus had not yet abandoned all hope ; and he and his son Archi- 
damus now directed their views towards the east, as a quarter from which 
Spartan power might still be resuscitated. At the age of eighty the in- 
domitable old man proceeded with a force of one thousand hoplites to as- 
sist Tachos, king of Egypt, in his revolt against Persia. The age and 
insignificant appearance of the veteran warrior made him, however, a butt 
for Egyptian ridicule, and he was not intrusted with the supreme command. 
But in spite of this affi'ont he accompanied the Egyptian army on an ex- 
pedition into Phoenicia. During the absence of Tachos, Nectanebis rose 
against him, and, being supported by Agesilaus, obtained the throne of 
Egypt. Nectanebis rewarded this service with a present of two hundred 
and thirty talents. But Agesilaus did not live to carry this money 
home to Sparta. He died on his road to Cyrene, where he had intended 
to embark for Greece. His body was embalmed in wax, and splendidly 
buried in Sparta. He was succeeded by his son Archidamus HI. 



B.C. 407.1 EEVOLUTIONS AT SYEACUSE. 455 




Bust of Plato. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

HISTORY OP THE SICILIAN GREEKS FROM THE DESTRUCTION OP THE 
ATHENIAN ARMAMENT TO THE DEATH OF TIMOLEON. 

§ 1. Revolutions at Syracuse. Dionysius the Elder seizes the Despotism. § 2. His Suc- 
cesses. ^ 3. His Poetical Compositions. Plato visits Syracuse. ^ 4. Death of Dionysius. 
Ilis Character. Story of Damocles. § 5. Accession of the Younger Dionysius. Second 
Visit of Plato. Banishment of Dion. Third Visit of Plato. § 6. Dion expels Dionysius, 
and becomes Master of Syracuse. § 7. Assassination of Dion. § 8. Revolutions at Syra- 
cuse. The Syracusans invoke the Aid of Corinth. § 9. Character of Timoleon. § 10. 
His Successes. Surrender of Dionysius and Conquest of Syracuse. § 11. Moderation of 
Timoleon. He remodels the Constitution. § 12. Defeats the Carthaginians at the Cri- 
mesus. § 13. Deposes the Sicilian Despots. § 14. Retires into a Private Station. His 
great Popularity and Death. 

§ 1. The affairs of the Sicilian Greeks, an important brancli of the 
Hellenic race, deserve a passing notice. After the destruction of the 
Athenian armament in b. c. 413, the constitution of Syracuse was ren- 
dered still more democratical by a new code of laws, which Diodes, one 
of the principal citizens, took the chief part in drawing up. Shortly 
afterwards, in b. c. 410, Hermocrates, the leader of the aristocratical party, 
who had greatly distinguished himself during the Athenian invasion, was 
banished ; and Diodes thus obtained for a time the undisputed direction of 
the Syracusan government. But two years afterwards Diodes was in his 
turn banished in consequence of his want of success in the war against the 
Carthaginians. Meantime Hermocrates had returned to Sicily and col- 
lected a considerable force at Selinus, from whence he carried on hostiUties 
against the Carthaginians and their allies with considerable success, and 
thus secured a strong party at Syracuse in his favor. Relying upon this 
drcumstance, he endeavored to effect his restoration by force, but was 
slain in an attempt to enter Syracuse by night, b. c. 407. This state of 
things opened the way for a still more daring and successful aspirant. 



456 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLI 

This was the celebrated Dionysius, the son of a person also named Her- 
mocrates. Dionysius was of humble origin, but of good education, and 
began life as a clerk in a public office. He had taken an active part in 
the entei'prise of Hermocrates just mentioned, in which he had been 
wounded and given out for dead, — a circumstance by which he escaped a 
sentence of banishment. After the death of Hermocrates, the domestic 
discontents of the Syracusans were still further foniented by another in- 
vasion of the Carthaginians in 406 b. c, during which they took and 
plundered Agrigentum. Dionysius, who now headed the party of Hermo- 
crates, taking advantage of the prevailing discontent, in an artful address 
to the assembly attributed the fall of Agrigentum to the incompetence of 
the Syracusan generals, and succeeded in procuring their deposition, and 
the appointment of others in their stead, of whom he himself was one. 
His advent to power was immediately followed by the restoration of all 
the exiles of his party. His next step was to get rid of his colleagues by 
accusing them of treachery and corruption, and to procure his own sole 
appointment with unlimited and irresponsible authority. The remaining 
steps towards a despotism were easy. Under pretence that his life had 
been attempted, he obtained a body-guard of one thousand men for his 
protection ; by whose means he made himself master of Syracuse, and 
openly seized upon the supreme power, B. c. 405. 

§ 2. Dionysius first directed his arms against Naxos, Catana, and 
Leontini, which successively fell into his power, either by force or treach- 
ery ; but it was not till b. c. 397 that he considered himself sufficiently 
strong to declare war against Carthage. This war was conducted with 
varying success. In 395 - 4 Syracuse itself seemed on the point of falling 
into the hands of the Carthaginians. The Carthaginian fleet, after ob- 
taining a great naval victory at Catana, sailed into the harbor of Syracuse 
upwards of two hundred strong. At the same time their army established 
itself in the neighborhood of the city, and Imilcon, the Carthaginian 
general, took up his head-quarters in the temple of Olympian Zeus, within 
about a mile and a half of the walls, and even occupied and plundered 
the suburb of Achradina. The situation of Dionysius now seemed des- 
perate. It is even said that he was on the point of giving up all for lost 
and making his escape ; from which he was deterred by one of his friends 
observing, " that sovereign power was an honorable winding-sheet. " A 
pestilence which shortly afterwards broke out in the Carthaginian camp 
proved the salvation of Syracuse. The Carthaginians fell by thousands, 
whilst the Syracusans themselves remained unharmed. Dionysius made 
a successful attack both by sea and land on their weakened forces ; and 
Imilcon was glad to secure a disgraceful retreat by purchasing the conni- 
vance of Dionysius for the sum of three hundred talents. 

After this period the career of Dionysius was marked by great, though 
not altogether unvarying success. In 393 the Carthaginians under Magon 



B. C. 387.] DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. 457 

once more threatened Syracuse, but were again defeated, and compelled 
to sue for peace. Dionysius willingly concluded a treaty with them, since 
he was anxious to pursue his schemes of conquest in the interior of Sicily, 
and in Magna Gr^ecia. By the year 384 he had reduced the greater part 
of the former, and a considerable portion of the latter country. He had 
now arrived at his highest pitch of power, and had raised Syracuse to be 
one of the chief Grecian states, second in influence, if indeed second, to 
Sparta alone. Under his sway Syracuse was strengthened and embel- 
lished with new fortifications, docks, arsenals, and other public buildings, 
and became superior even to Athens in extent and population. Dio- 
nysius took every opportunity of extending his relations with foreign 
powers, and strengthening himself by alliances. He cultivated the friend- 
ship of the Lacedaemonians ; and among the last acts of his reign was the 
sending of an auxiliary force in two successive years to support them 
against the increasing power of the Thebans. 

§ 3. Dionysius was a warm patron of literature, and was anxious to 
gain distinction by his literary compositions. In the midst of his political 
and military cares he devoted himself assiduously to poetry, and not only 
caused his poems to be publicly recited at the Olympic games, but 
repeatedly contended for the prize of tragedy at Athens. Here he several 
times obtained the second and third prizes ; and finally, just before his 
death, bore away the first prize at the Lengean festival, with a play called 
" The Ransom of Hector." 

In accordance with the same spirit we find him seeking the society of 
men distinguished in literature and philosophy. Plato, who visited Sicily 
about the year 389 from a curiosity to see Mount ^tna, was introduced 
to Dionysius by Dion. The high moral tone of Plato's conversation did 
not however prove so attractive to Dionysius as it had done to Dion ; and 
the philosopher was not only dismissed with aversion and dislike, but 
even, it seems, through the machinations of Dionysius, seized, bound, and 
sold for a slave in the island of ^gina. He was, however, repurchased 
by.Anniceris of Gyrene, and sent back to Athens. 

§ 4. Dionysius died in b. c. 387, after a reign of thirty-eight years. 
Love of power was his ruling passion : the desire of literary fame his 
second. In his manner of life he was moderate and temperate ; but he 
was a stranger to pity, and never suffered it to check him in the pursuit 
of his ends. Although by no means deficient in personal courage, the 
suspicious temper of Dionysius rendered him the miserable prey of 
.uneasiness in the midst of all his greatness, and di'ove him to take pre- 
cautions for the security of his life even against his nearest friends and 
relatives. The miseries of absolute, but unlegalized and unpopular power, 
cannot be more strongly illustrated, than by the celebrated story of the 
despot of Syracuse and his flatterer Damocles. The latter having ex- 
tolled the power and majesty, the abundant possessions and magnificent 
58 



458 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLI 

palaces, which rendered his master the happiest of men, Dionysius invited 
Damocles to trj what his happiness really was, and then ordered him to 
be placed on a golden couch, decked with coverings of the richest and 
most magnificent embroidery. The sideboards groaned under the weight 
of gold and silver plate ; pages of the choicest beauty waited on him ; his 
head was crowned with garlands and reeked with unguents ; the smell of 
burning odors filled all the apartment, and the table was covered with 
the most exquisite viands. Damocles now thought himself supremely 
happy ; but in the midst of his enjoyments he happened to cast his eyes 
towards the ceiling, and beheld a naked cimeter suspended over his head 
by a single hair. At this sight his satisfaction vanished in an instant, and 
he entreated to be released from the enjoyment of pleasures which could 
only be tasted at the risk of life.* Such was the tyrant's practical illus- 
tration of his own envied condition. 

§ 5. Dionysius was succeeded by his eldest son, commonly called the 
Younger Dionysius, who was about twenty-five years of age at the time of 
his father's death. The elder Dionysius had married two wives at the same 
time. One of these was a Locrian woman named Doris ; the other, Aiis- 
tomache, was a Syracusan, the daughter of Hipparinus, one of the most 
active partisans of Dionysius, and sister to Dion, whom we have already 
had occasion to mention as the friend of Plato. The marriage with Doris 
proved immediately fruitful, and by her he had three children, of whom the 
eldest, Dionysius, was his successor. But Aristomache was long childless, 
much to the chagrin of Dionysius, who, attributing the circumstance to the 
spells and incantations of the mother of Doris, caused the latter to be 
put to death. At 'length Ai'istomache also bore him children, two sons and 
two daughters. Dionysius having died without appointing any successor, 
Dion at first attempted to secui-e the inheritance for his youthful nephews, 
but found himself obliged to relinquish all such claims in favor of the son 
of Doris. The inexperience of the young Dionysius, however, inclined 
him to listen to the counsels of Dion, who had always enjoyed the respect 
and confidence of his father, and who now became the confidential adviser 
of the son. Plato's lofty and ideal conceptions of civil government had 
bunk deep hito the mind of Dion, and the influence which he now en- 
loyed over the youthful sovereign made him long to seize the opportunity 
for realizing them in practice. To expel the Carthaginians from Sicily, 
to civilize and Hellenize the semi-barbarous Siceliot tribes, and to convert 
Syracuse fi-om a despotism into a constitutional monarchy governed by 
3qual laws, — these were the projects which floated in the imagination of 

* " Destrictus ensis cui super impia 
Cervice pendet, non Sicute dapes 
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem ; 
Non avium citharseque cautus 
Somnum reduceut." — Hok. Cai'm. iii. 1. 17. 



B. C. 360.] DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER. 459 

Dion, and which he endeavored to instil into Dionysius. With this view 
he persuaded Dionysius to invite Plato again to Syracuse, nothing doubt- 
ing that his eloquence and conversational powers would work an immense 
effect upon the youthful monarch. But Plato was now growing old, and 
had already experienced the danger of attempting to instruct despots in 
the sublime, but somewhat visionary, theories of perfect government. 
Nevertheless, after something of a struggle, he sacrificed his scruples and 
apprehensions to the pressing instances of his friend Dion, and the warm 
invitation of young Dionysius himself. The philosoplier was received 
with the greatest honor. His illustrious pupil immediately began to 
take lessons in geometry ; superfluous dishes disappeared from the royal 
table ; and Dionysius even betrayed some symptoms of a wish to mitigate 
the former rigors of the despotism. But now his old courtiers took the 
alarm ; nor does Plato himself appear to have used with skill the oppor- 
tunity for a practical application of his doctrines wjiich chance had thrown 
in his way. It was whispered to Dionysius that the whole was a deep- 
laid scheme on the part of Dion for the purpose of effecting a revolution 
and placing his own nephews on the throne. These accusations had the 
desired effect on the mind of Dionysius ; and an intercepted letter from 
Dion to the Carthaginian generals, in which he invited them to make 
their communications through him, afforded Dionysius a pretext for getting 
rid of him. In the course of a conversation he enticed Dion down to the 
very brink of the harbor, when, suddenly producing the intercepted letter, 
and charging him to his face with treason, he forced him to enter a vessel 
that was in readiness to convey him to Italy. The situation of Plato was 
now very critical. Many advised Dionysius to put him to death ; but the 
despot i-efused to listen to these suggestions. He even invited Plato to his 
palace, and treated him with the greatest respect ; but he cautiously ab- 
stained from any more lessons in a philosophy which he had now been 
taught to regard with suspicion, as designed only to deprive him of his 
power. Plato was at length suffered to escape from the kind of honor- 
able captivity in which he was held ; but at the pressing invitation of 
Dionysius he again reluctantly returned to Syracuse in the hope of pre- 
vailing upon the tyrant to recall Dion from banishment. In this, however, 
he proved unsuccessful ; nay, Dionysius even proceeded to measures of 
violence against his former guide and minister. First, the remittances 
which Dion, who was now residing at Athens, was in the habit of receiv- 
ing, were stopped, and at length all his large property was confiscated and 
sold, and the proceeds distributed among the personal friends of Dionysius. 
Plato beheld this injustice towards his friend with grief and mortification, 
but without the power of preventing it ; and it was with difficulty that he 
himself at length obtained permission to return to Greece. 

§ 6. This event took place early in 360 b. c. ; and at the Olympic fes- 
tival of that year Plato met his friend Dion, and acquainted him with the 



460 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLL 

measures which had been taken against him by Dionysius. The natural 
indignation of Dion was further inflamed by other acts of the Syracusan 
tyrant. Dionysius compelled Arete, the wife of Dion, and his own half- 
sister, to marry one of his friends, named Timocrates. He also acted in 
the most brutal manner towards Dion's youthful son. Thus wounded in 
the tenderest points, Dion resolved on revenge. The popularity which 
he had acquired, not only at Athens but at Sparta and in the Pelopon- 
nesus, and especially among those who were attached to Plato and his 
teaching, rendered many disposed to serve him ; whilst the natural desire 
of a great part of the Syracusan population to recover their liberty, as 
well as the contempt into which Dionysius had fallen from his drunken 
and dissipated habits, promised success to any enterprise against him, 
though undertaken with ever so small a force. 

After two or three years sjjent in preparations, Dion, in the summer 
of 357 B.C., landed on the coast of Sicily with only eight hundred men. 
The enterprise was favored by an imprudent step on the part of Dio- 
nysius, Avho had recently sailed with a tieet of eighty vessels on an expedi- 
tion to the coasts of Italy. By a rapid night-march Dion appeared 
unexpectedly before Syracuse ; at dawn his troops were beheld from the 
walls in the act of crossing the little river Anapus, first crowning their 
heads with garlands, and sacrificing to the rising sun. Their advance re- 
sembled rather the solemn procession of a festival than the march of a 
hostile army. The inhabitants, filled with joy and enthusifism, crowded 
through the gates to welcome Dion as their deliverer, who proclaimed by 
sound of trumpet that he was come for the purpose of putting down the 
despotism of Dionysius, and of liberating not only the Syracusans, but 
all the Sicilian Greeks. 

Dion easily rendered himself master of the whole of Syracuse, with the 
exception of Ortygia, which was still held by the partisans of Dionysius. 
Such was the state in which that tyrant found his capital on his return 
from his Italian expedition. Dionysius at first attempted to recover pos- 
session of the city by force, but having been defeated in a sea-fight, he 
determined to quit Syracuse, and sailed away to Locri in Italy, leaving 
his son Apollocrates in charge of the citadel (b. c. 356). After his de- 
parture, dissensions broke out among the besiegers, and Dion was deposed 
from the command ; but the disasters of the Syracusans, arising from the 
incapacity of their new leaders, soon led to his recall, and to his appoint- 
ment as sole general with uncontrolled authority. Not long after, Apol- 
locrates was compelled by famine to surrender the citadel. 

§ 7. Dion was now master of Syracuse, and in a condition to carry out 
all those exalted notions of political life which he had sought to instil into 
the mind of Dionysius. He seems to have contempleted some political 
changes, probably the establishment of a kind of limited and constitutional 
monarchy, after the fashion of Sparta, combined perhaps with the oligar- 



li. C. 410.] TIMOLEON INVADES SICILY. 461 

chical institutions of Corinth. But this scheme of a constitution existed 
only in his imagination : his immediate and practical acts were tyrannical, 
and were rendered still more unpopular by his overbearing manners. 
The Syracusans looked for republican institutions, — for the dismantling 
of the fortifications of Ortygia, the stronghold of despotism, — and for the 
destruction of the splendid mausoleum, which had been erected there to 
the memory of the elder Dionysius, by way of pledge that the despotism 
was really extinct and overthrown. But Dion did nothing of all this. 
Nay, he even caused Heracleides, who had proposed the destruction of 
Ortygia, to be privately assassinated. This act increased to the highest 
pitch the unpopularity under which he already labored. One of his bo- 
som friends — the Athenian Callippus — seized the opportunity to mount 
to power by his murder, and, having gained over some of his guards, 
caused him to be assassinated in his own house. This event took place in 
353, about three years after the expulsion of the Dionysian dynasty. 

§ 8. Callippus contrived to retain the sovereign power about a twelve 
month. He was ultimately driven out by Hipparinus, the nephew of Dion 
(son of the elder Dionysius by Aristomache), who reigned but two years. 
Nys^us, another of Dion's nephews, subsequently obtained the sujjreme 
authority, and was in possession of it when Dionysius ]Dresented himself 
before Syracuse with a fleet, and became master of the city by treachery, 
about B. c. 346. Dionysius, however, was not able to re-establish himself 
firmly in his former power. Most of the other cities of Sicily had shaken 
oflF the yoke of Syracuse, and were governed by petty despots : one of 
these, Hicetas, who had established himself at Leontini, afibrded a rallying- 
point to the disaffected Syracusans, with whom he joined in making war 
on Syracuse. Meantime, the Carthaginians prepared to take advantage of 
the distracted condition of Sicily. In the extremity of their suffei'ings, 
several of the Syracusan exiles appealed for aid to Corinth, their mother 
city. The application was granted, and Timoleon was appointed to com- 
mand an expedition destined for the relief of Syracuse. 

§ 9. Timoleon was one of those models of uncompromising patriotism 
which we sometimes meet with in the history of Greece, and still more 
frequently in that of Rome, but which, under some of its phases, we in 
modern times are at a loss whether to approve or to condemn. Whei? 
a man's country was comprised in a small state or a single city, the feehng 
of patriotism grew stronger in proportion as it was more condensed ; 
and to this circumstance, as well as to the humanizing effects of Chris- 
tianity, may perhaps be chiefly attributed the difference between ancient 
and modern views respecting the duty of a patriot. Timoleon was dis- 
tinguished for gentleness as well as for courage, but towards traitors and 
despots his hatred was intense. He had once saved the life of his el- 
der brother Timophanes in battle at the imminent peril of his own ; but 
when Timophanes, availing himself of his situation as commander of the 



4^62 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLI. 

garrison in the Acrocorinthos, endeavored to enslave his country, Timo- 
leon did not hesitate to consent to his death. Twice before had Timoleon 
pleaded with his brother, beseeching him not to destroy the liberties of 
his country ; but when Timophanes turned a deaf ear to these appeals, 
Timoleon connived at the action of his friends who put him to death, whilst 
he himself, bathed in a flood of tears, stood a little way aloof. The action 
was not without its censurers even among the Corinthians themselves : 
but these were chiefly the adherents of the despotic party, whilst the great 
body of the citizens regarded the conduct of Timoleon with love and ad- 
miration. In the mind of Timoleon, however, their approving verdict 
was far more than outweighed by the reproaches and execrations of his 
mother. The stings of blood-guiltiness and the maternal curse sunk so 
deep into his soul, that he endeavored to starve himself to death, and he 
was only diverted from his purpose by the active interference of his friends. 
But for many years nothing could prevail upon him to return to public 
life. He buried himself in the country far from the haunts of men, drag- 
ging out the life of a self-condemned criminal and exile, till a chance 
voice in the Corinthian assembly nominated him as the leader of the ex- 
pedition against Dionysius. 

§ 10. Roused by the nature of the cause, and the exhortations of his 
friends, Timoleon resolved to accept the post thus offered to him. The 
prospect however was discouraging. Before he sailed, a message arrived 
from Sicily to countermand the expedition, Hicetas and the anti-Dionysian 
party having entered into secret negotiations with the Carthaginians, who 
refused to allow any Corinthians to land in Sicily. But the responses of 
the Delphic oracle and the omens of the gods were propitious ; especially 
the circumstance that, in the temple of Delphi itself, a wreath of victory 
"ell from one of the statues upon the head of Timoleon. 

The fleet of Timoleon consisted of only ten triremes, but by an adroit 
stratagem he contrived to elude the Carthaginian fleet of twenty sail, and 
arrived safely at Tauromenium in Sicily, where he was heartily welcomed 
by the inhabitants. Hicetas, meanwhile, had made great progress in the 
war against Dionysius. He had defeated him in battle, and had made 
himself master of the whole of Syracuse with the exception of Ortygia, 
in which he kept the despot closely besieged. Hicetas, learning that Ti- 
moleon was advancing to occupy Adranum, hastened thither to anticipate 
him, but was defeated with heavy loss. Timoleon now marched upon 
Syracuse. Dionysius, who appears to have abandoned all hope of ultimate 
success, judged it better to treat with Timoleon than with Hicetas, and ac- 
cordingly surrendered the citadel into the hands of the Corinthian leader 
on condition of being allowed to depart in safety to Corinth, B. c. 343 
Dionysius passed the remainder of his life at Corinth, where he is said to 
have displayed some remnants of his former luxury by the fastidious taste 
which he showed in the choice of his viands, unguents, dress, and furni- 



B. C 343.] SUCCESS OF TIMOLEON. 463 

ture; whilst his literary inclinations manifested themselves in teaching 
the public singers and actors, and in opening a school for boys. 

Hicetas still had possession of Achradina ; * and, since he saw that his 
selfish plans were on the point of failure, he now called in the aid of the 
whole Carthaginian force for the reduction of Ortygia. The harbor of 
Syracuse was occupied by one hundred and fifty Carthaginian ships, whilst 
an army of sixty thousand Carthaginians was admitted within the walls 
of Syracuse. But while Hicetas and Magon, the Carthaginian general, 
marched with a great part of their force to attack the town of Catana, 
whence the garrison of Ortygia was supplied with provisions, Neon, the 
Corinthian commander in Ortygia, watching a favorable opportunity, made 
a sally, defeated the blockading force on all sides, and even obtained pos- 
session of the suburb of Achradina. This unexpected success raised the 
suspicions of Magon, who, fearing that Hicetas meant to betray him, resolved 
to quit the island, and sailed away '\\'ith all his forces to Carthage. Not- 
withstanding the defection of his powerful ally, Hicetas attempted to re- 
tain possession of that part of Syracuse which was still in his power, but 
he was unable to resist the attack of Timoleon, and was obliged to aban- 
don the city and return to Leontini. 

§ 11. Thus was the apparently hopeless enterprise of Timoleon crowned 
with entire success in an incredibly short space of time. It now remained 
for him to achieve a still greater victory, — a victory over himself He 
was master of Syracuse and of Ortygia, with all its means and resources 
for establishing a despotism in his own favor ; but his first public act was 
to destroy those impregnable fortifications which would have rendered 
such a usurpation feasible. All the Syracusans were invited to assist in 
demolishing the walls of Ortygia, and the monument of the elder Dio- 
nysius, the record of their former slavery ; and on the ruins of these dreaded 
works Timoleon caused courts of justice to be erected, at once the pledge 
and instruments of equal laws and future freedom. 

Much, however, remained to be done to restore Syracuse to its former 
prosperity, and Sicily in general to a state of liberty and order. With 
this view all exiles were invited to return ; whilst Corinth was intreated 
to co-operate in the work of restoration, and to become a second time the 
founder of Syracuse. Two leading Corinthian citizens were accordingly 
despatched to assist Timoleon and the Syracusans in recasting their con- 
stitution, which was remodelled on the basis of the laws of Diocles.t To 
remedy the poverty into which Syracuse had been plunged by its misfor- 
tunes, new colonists were invited to enroll themselves ; and thus a body 
of ten thousand citizens, including the Syracusan exiles, was collected at 
Corinth and transported to Syracuse. But larger bodies of Greeks soon 
poured in from Italy, so that altogether the immigrants are reckoned at 
sixty thousand. 

* See plan of Syracuse, p. 316. t See p. 45fi. 



464 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLI 

§ 12. Meantime, Timoleon was not idle. He attacked Hicetas in Le- 
ontini, and compelled him to capitulate. But the submission of Hicetas 
was a mere feint in order to gain time for calling in the Carthaginians ; 
who, highly indignant at the precipitate retreat of Magon, were anxious 
to wipe out the disgrace by some signal act of vengeance. An army of 
seventy thousand men was accordingly disembarked at Lilyba3um. To 
meet this formidable force, Timoleon could raise only about twelve thou- 
sand men ; and on his march against the enemy this small force was still 
further reduced by the defection of about one thousand of his mercenaries. 
With the remainder Timoleon marched westwards into the Carthaginian 
province. As he was approaching the Crimesus, or Crimissus, a small 
river which flows mto the Hypsa on the southwestern coast of Sicily, he 
was saluted by one of those omens which so frequently either raised the 
courage of the Greeks or sunk them into despondency. The army was 
met by several mules bearing loads of parsley, the usual ornament of 
tombs. Perceiving the alarm of his soldiers, Timoleon, with great jjres- 
ence of mind, gave the omen another and a favorable direction. Crowns 
of parsley were also employed to reward the victors in the Isthmian games ; 
and Timoleon, seizing a handful and making a wreath for his own head, 
exclaimed, " Behold our Corinthian symbol of victory ; its unexpected 
appearance here affords an unequivocal omen of success." These timely 
words reanimated his men, who now followed him with alacrity. In the 
battle which ensued, Timoleon appeared to have been again favored by 
the gods. In the hottest of the fight a terrific storai of hail, rain, thunder, 
and lightning beat right in the faces of the Carthaginians, and by the con- 
fusion which it created enabled the Greeks to put them to the rout. The 
same cause occasioned the death of thousands in their retreat, for the river 
Crimesus, swollen by the sudden rain, carried away a great part of those 
who attempted to recross it. Ten thousand Carthaginians are said to have 
perished in the battle, while fifteen thousand more were made prisoners. 
The remainder fled without stopping to Lilyb^um, whence they immedi- 
ately embarked for Carthage, not without a dread that the anger of the 
gods would still pursue them at sea. 

§ 13. The victory of the Crimesus brought Timoleon such an accession 
of power and influence, that he now resolved to carry into execution his 
project of expelling all the despots from Sicily. The Carthaginians sent 
another expedition to assist these despots, but they were unable to effect 
anything, and were glad to conclude a treaty with Timoleon in b. c. 338. 
While the war still continued with the Carthaginians, Timoleon obtained 
possession of the town of Leontini, as well as of the person of Hicetas, whom 
he caused to be put to death. Mamercus, despot of Catana, was next de- 
posed and executed by order of the public assembly at Syracuse, and the 
other despots in Sicily soon shared his fate. 

§ 14. Having thus effected the liberation of the island, Timoleon imme- 



B. C. 336.] DEATH OF TIMOLEON. 465 

diately laid down his power. All the reward he received for his great 
services was a house in Syracuse, and some landed property in the neigh- 
borhood of the city. He now sent for his family from Corinth, and became 
a Syracusan citizen. He continued, however, to retain, though in a pri- 
vate station, the greatest influence in the state. During the latter part of 
his life, though he was totally deprived of sight, yet, when important aflPairs 
were discussed in the assembly, it was customary to send for Timoleon, 
who was drawn in a car into the middle of the theatre, amid the shouts 
and affectionate greetings of the assembled citizens. When the tumult of 
his reception had subsided, he listened patiently to the debate. The opin- 
ion which he pronounced was usually ratified by the vote of the assembly ; 
and he then left the theatre amidst the same cheers which had greeted his 
arrival. A truly gratifying position ! and one which must have conferred 
on Timoleon more real happiness than the possession of the most absolute 
power could ever have bestowed. In this happy and honored condition 
he breathed his last, in b. c. 336, a few years after the battle of Crimesus. 
He was splendidly interred at the public cost, whilst the tears of the whole 
Syracusan population followed him to the grave. 



466 




View of Delphi and Mount Pamassns. 

BOOK VI. 

THE MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. 
B. C. 359-146. 



CHAPTER XLII. 



rROAl TIIK ACCKSSION OF PHILTP TO THE END OF THE SACRED WAR. 



■^ 1. Stnte of (Jrof'ce ^2. Depoription of Mucedonia. ^3. Kings of Macedon. § 4. Char- 
acter of Philip, y 5. He subdues tlie Paeoniaiis and Illyrians. § 6. His Military Disci- 
pline. v\ 7. Ciijirure of Anipliipolis, and Foundation of Philippi. ^ 8. The Social War. 
§9. Commenceiiiciit of the Sacred War. The Phocians seize Delphi. §10. Successes 
of the Phociniis. \\ 11. I^hilip interfei-es in the War. Conquers Thessaly. § 12. Philip 
in Thrace. Demn-ithenes. § 13. The Olynthian War. § 14. Character of Phocion. 
Fall of Olyntlius. (v 15. Progress of the Sacred War. Embassy to Philip. § 16. Con- 
quest of Phocis by Piiilip. Sentence of the Amphictyonic Council on the Phocians. 

§ 1. The internal dissensions of Greece, which have formed the subject 
of the two preceding books, are now about to produce their natural fruits ; 
and in the present book we shall have to relate the downfall of her inde- 
pendence, and her subjugation by a foreign power. We have first of all 
seen Sparta exercising a sort of empire of opinion over the other Grecian 
states, and looked up to by them with willing obedience as their tradi- 



B. C. 359.] HISTORY OF MACEDONIA. 467 

tional and chosen leader. After the Persian wars Athens contests the 
pahn with her, and, through the confederacy of Delos, becomes virtually 
the head of Greece in material power, if not recognized as such by the 
public opinion of the nation. But Sparta and most of the other Grecian 
states, from jealousy of the Athenian supremacy, league together for the 
purpose of crushing Athens. After a long struggle, Athens falls into the 
power of her enemies ; and Sparta becomes the ruler of Greece. The 
power which she has thus acquired, she exercises with harshness, cruelty, 
and corruption ; her own allies desert her ; and in little more than thirty 
years after the battle of -^gospotami she is in her turn, not only deprived 
of the supremacy, but even stripped of a considerable portion of her own 
ancient territory, chiefly through the power and influence of Thebes. For 
a little while Thebes becomes the predominant state ; but she owes her 
position solely to the abilities and genius of Epameinondas, and after his 
death sinks down to her former level. The state of exhaustion into which 
Greece had been thrown by these protracted intestine dissensions is al- 
ready shown by her having condescended to throw herself at the feet of 
Persia, and to mike her hereditary enemy the arbiter of her quarrels. 
Athens alone, during the comparative state of tranquillity afforded her 
through the mutual disputes of her neighbors, has succeeded in regaining 
some portion of her former strength, and becomes the leading power in 
the struggle which now threatens to overwhelm the whole of Greece. 
This new danger comes from an obscure Northern state, hitherto over- 
looked and despised, and considered as altogether barbarous, and without 
the pale of Grecian civilization. 

§ 2. Macedonia — for that is the country of which we are speaking — 
had various limits at different times. Properly, however, it may be re- 
garded as separated from Thessaly on the south by the Cambunian Moun- 
tains ; from Illyria on the west by the great mountain chain called Scar- 
dus and Bernus, and which, under the name of Pindus, also separates 
Thessaly from Epeirus ; from Moesia on the north by the mountains called 
Orbelus and Scomius ; and from Thrace on the east by the river Strymon. 
It is drained by three rivers of considerable size, the Axius, the Lydias, 
and the Haliacmon ; each of which has its separate valley, formed by two 
mountain ranges running southeastwards from the mountains that divide 
Illyria and Macedonia. All these rivers discharge themselves into the 
Thermaic Gulf. The origin of the people who inhabited this tract of coun- 
try has been much disputed. The Greeks themselves looked upon them 
as barbarians, that is, as not of Hellenic origin. They were probably an 
lUyrian people, and the similarity of the manners and customs, as well as 
of the languages, so far as they are known, of the early Macedonians and 
Dlyrians, seems to establish the identity of the races. 

§ 3. But though the Macedonians were not Greeks, their sovereigns 
claimed to be descended from an Hellenic race, namely, that of Temenua 



468 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLII. 

of Argos ; and it is said that Alexander I. proved his Argive descent pre- 
viously to contending at the Olympic games. Perdiccas is commonly 
regarded as the founder of the monarchy ; of the history of which, how- 
ever, little is known till the reign of Amyntas I., his fifth successor, who 
was contemporary with the Peisistratid^e at Athens. Under Amyntas, 
who submitted to the satrap Megabyzus, Macedonia became subject to 
Persia, and remained so till after the battle of Platsea. The reigns of the 
succeeding sovereigns down to Philip 11. present little that is remarkable, 
with the exception of that of Archelaus (b. c. 413). This monarch ef 
fected much for Macedonia by improving the condition of the army, by 
erecting fortresses to check the incursions of his barbarous neighbors, by 
constructing roads, and by endeavoring to diffuse among his subjects a 
taste for literature and art. He transferred his residence from JEg?e to 
Pella, which thus became the capital, and he employed Zeuxis to adorn 
his palace there with paintings. He entertained many literary men at his 
court ; such as Agathon and Euripides, the latter of whom ended his days 
at Pella. Archelaus was assassinated in b. c. 399, and the crown de- 
volved upon Amyntas H., a representative of the ancient line. Amyntas 
left three sons : Alexander H., who was assassinated by Ptolemy Alorites ; 
Perdiccas HI., who recovered his brother's throne by slaying Ptolemy, 
and who fell in battle against the lUyrians; and lastly, the celebrated 
Philip, of whom we have now to speak. 

§ 4. It has been already mentioned that the youthful Philip was one 
of the hostages delivered to the Thebans as security for the peace effected 
by Pelopidas. His residence at Thebes gave him some tincture of Gre- 
cian philosophy and literature. It seems probable that he made the per- 
sonal acquaintance of Plato ; and he undoubtedly acquired that command 
over the Greek language which put him on a level with the best orators 
of the day. But the most important lesson which he learned at Thebes 
was the art of war, with all the improved tactics introduced by Epamei- 
nondas. At the tinie of Philip's residence, moreover, Thebes was the 
centre of political interest, and he must accordingly have had opportunities 
to become intimately acquainted with the views and policy of the various 
Grecian powers. The genius and character of Philip were well calcu- 
lated to derive advantage from these opportunities. He had great natural 
acuteness and sagacity, so as to perceive at a glance the men to be em- 
ployed, and the opportunities to be improved. His boundless ambition 
was seconded by an iron will, which no danger could daunt and no repulse 
dishearten ; and when he had once formed a project, he pursued it with 
untiring and resistless energy. His handsome person, spontaneous elo- 
quence, and apparently frank deportment were of great assistance to him 
in the prosecution of his schemes ; whilst under these seducing qualities 
kirked no inconvenient morality to stand between his desires and their 
gratification. Corruption was his instrument as frequently as force ; and 



B. C. 359.] ACCESSION OF PHILIP. 469 

it was one of his favorite boasts, tliat he had taken more towns with silver 
than witli iron.* Yet when force was necessary no man could wield it 
better ; for with the skill of a general he united a robustness of constitution 
which enabled him to bear all the hardships of a campaign as well as the 
meanest soldier. 

§ 5. Such was the man who at the age of twenty-three assumed the gov- 
ernment of Macedonia (b. c. 359). It had probably been intrusted to 
him when his brother Perdiccas set out on the expedition against the H- 
lyrians in which he fell ; and after that event he became the guardian of 
his brother's infant son. This minority induced two pretenders to claim 
the crown : Pausanias, who was supported by the king of Thrace ; and 
Arg«us, whose claims were backed by the Athenians witli a force of three 
thousand hoplites, because he had engaged to put them in possession of 
Amphipolis. But by his promises and address Philip contrived to propi- 
tiate both the king of Thrace and the Athenians ; to the latter of whom he 
made the same offers as Argieus had done. The two pretenders, bemg 
thus deprived of their supporters, were easily got rid of, and Philip was 
left at liberty to turn his arms against the Pasonians and Illyrians, who 
were threatening Macedonia with invasion. The former people were 
easily subdued, and Philip then marched against the Illyrians with a 
force of ten thousand men. He was met by Bardylis, the aged chief of 
niyria, with an army of about the same strength. This was the first 
important engagement fought by Philip. He displayed in it the military 
skill which he had acquired in the school of Epameinondas, and, hke that 
commander, gained the victory by concentrating his forces on one point of 
the enemy's line. Nearly two thirds of the lUyrian army were destroyed ; 
a^d they were consequently compelled to submit unconditionally, and to 
place in the hands of Phihp the principal mountain passes between the 
two countries. It was after these victories that Philip seems to have 
deposed his nephew, and to have assumed the crown of Macedon. This 
revolution, however, was unattended with harshness or cruelty. Philip 
continued to bring up his nephew at court, and ultimately gave him one 
of his daughters in marriage. 

§ 6. It was natural that success acquired with so much ease should 
prompt a youthful and ambitious monarch to further undertakings. In 
anticipation of future conquests he devoted the greatest attention to the 
training and disciplme of his army. It was in his Illyrian wars that he is 
said to have introduced the far-famed Macedonian phalanx. But perhaps 
the greatest of his jnilitary innovations was the establishment of a standing 
army. We have already noticed certain bodies of this description at 



* " Diffidit urbium 
Portas vir Macedo et subruit semulos 
Reges muneribus." — Hor. Carm. iii. 16. 13. 



470 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLII, 

Argos and Thebes. Philip, however, seems to have retained on foot the 
ten thousand men which he had employed against the Illyrians ; and this 
standing force was gradually enlai'ged to double the number. Among the 
soldiers discipline was preserved by the severest punishments. Thus we 
hear of a youth of noble birth being scourged for leaving the ranks to get 
a draught of wine at a tavern ; and of another, who, though a favorite at 
court, was put to death for a similar offence, aggravated by a breach of 
positive orders. 

§ 7. Philip's views were now turned towards the eastern frontiers of 
his dominions, where his interests clashed with those of the Athenians. 
A few years before, the Athenians had made various unavailing attempts 
to obtain possession of Amphipolis, once the jewel of their empire, but 
which they had never recovered since its capture by Brasidas in the 
eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. Its situation at the mouth of the 
Strymon rendered it also valuable to Macedonia, not only as a commercial 
port, but as opening a passage into Thrace. The Olynthians were like- 
wise anxious to enroll Amphipolis as a member of their confederacy, and 
accordingly proposed to the Athenians to form an alliance for the purpose 
of defending Amphipolis against their mutual enemy. An alliance be- 
tween these two powerful states would have proved an insurmountable 
obstacle to Philip's views ; and it was therefore absolutely necessary to 
prevent this coalition. Here we have the first instance of Philip's skill 
and duplicity in negotiation. By secretly promising the Athenians that 
he would put Amphipolis into their hands, if they would give him 
possession of Pydna, he induced them to reject the overtures of the 
Olynthians ; and by ceding to the latter the town of Anthemus, he 
bought off their opposition. He now laid siege to Amphipolis, which, 
being thus left unaided, fell into his hands (b. c. 358). He then forth- 
with marched against Pydna, which surrendered to him ; but on the 
ground that it was not the Athenians who had put him in possession of 
this town, he refused to give up Amphipolis to them. 

Philip had now just reason to dread the enmity of the Athenians, and 
accordingly it was his policy to court the favor of the Olynthians, and to 
prevent them from renewing their negotiations with the Athenians. In 
order to separate them more effectually, he assisted the Olynthians in 
recovering Potidsea, which had formerly belonged to their confederacy, 
but was now in the hands of the Athenians. On the capture of the town, 
he handed it over to the Olynthians ; but at the same time he treated the 
Athenian garrison with kindness, and allowed them to return home in 
safety. Plutarch relates that the capture of Potidgea was accompanied 
with three other fortunate events in the life of Philip ; namely, the prize 
gained by his chariot at the Olympic games, a victory of his general, 
Parmenio, over the Illyrians, and the birth of his son Alexander. These 
' events happened in B. c. 356. 



B. C. 358.] THE SOCIAL WAR. 471 

Philip now crossed the Strymon, on the left bank of which lay Pan- 
gaeus, a range of mountains abounding in gold mines. Panggeus prop- 
erly belonged to the Thracians, but had sometimes been in the possession 
of the Athenians, and sometimes of tlie Thasians ; and at this time was 
held by the latter people. Philip conquered the district, and founded 
there a new town called Philippi, on the site of the ancient Thasian town 
of Crenides. By improved methods of working tlie mines he made them 
yield an annual revenue of one thousand talents, nearly £ 250,000. 
But it was chiefly a.s a milirary post that Philippi was valuable to him, 
and as a means of pu>hiug his conquests flirther eastwards; for which, 
however, he was not at [)i-(.'seiit prepared. 

§ 8. Meanwliile, Aih-.-ns u-a- fiigtvixi^d in a war with her allies, which 
has been csilicd riie S/citd War; and wliit'h wa>. jiei-lnij!,-, the reason why 
she Wii.- oblig.'J io lv)uk (jnicrly on wiiil,-t Philip wa- thus aggrandizing 
himself at her expen •<'. T.il-- wai' In'ola; out in b. c. .'3V^. TJie chief 
causes ui' it seeiU to havi-' bc.i'ii tlie (.'(jnti-ilniiions luvic! u^.on the allies by 
the Athenian geueraU, and the re-establishnie;it of tlie .system of cleru- 
chies, which the Athenians had formally renounced when they were begin- 
ning to reconstruct their empire. However this may be, a coalition was 
formed against Athens, of which either Byzantium or Rhodes was the 
head, and which was soon joined by Chios, Cos, and other places. The 
insurgents were also assisted by the Carian prince, Mausolus. The first 
step taken by the Athenians in order to quell this insurrection was to 
attack Chios with sixty triremes, under Chares and Chabrias. The 
expedition proved unsuccessful. Chabrias was slain whilst gallantly 
leading the way into the harbor of Chios, and the armament was al- 
together defeated. We next find Timotheus and Iphicrates employed in 
this war in conjunction with Chares : but the details recorded of it are 
obscure, and sometimes contradictory. Chares got rid of his two colleagues 
on a charge of failing to support him in a battle. On this indictment they 
were subsequently tried, when Iphicrates was acquitted ; but Timotheus 
was condemned, and retired to Chalcis, where he soon afterwards died. 
Athens thus lost her best commanders ; and Chares, having obtained the 
sole command, entered the service of the satrap Artabazus, who had re- 
volted against Artaxerxes, and was rewarded with a large sum, which 
enabled him to pay his men. He did not succeed, however, in reducing 
the refractory allies to obedience ; and when Artaxerxes threatened to 
support them with a fleet of three hundred ships, the Athenians were 
obliged to consent to a disadvantageous peace, which secured the inde- 
pendence of the more important allies (b. c. 355). The Athenians only 
succeeded in retaining some of the smaller towns and islands, and their 
revenue from them was reduced to the moderate sum of forty-five talents. 

§ 9. The Social War tended still further to exhaust the Grecian states, 
and thus pave the way for Philip's progress to the supremacy. Another 



i72 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. TT.TT 

war, wMch had been raging during the same time, produced the same 
result even to a greater extent. This was the Sacred War, which broke 
out between Thebes and Phocis in the same year as the Social War 
(b. c. 357). An Ul feeling had long subsisted between those two countries. 
It was with reluctance that the Phocians had joined the Theban alliance. 
In the last campaign of Epameinondas in the Peloponnesus, they positive- 
ly refused their assistance ; and after the death of that leader, they seem 
to have committed some actual hostilities against Boeotia. The Thebans 
now availed themselves of the influence which they possessed in the 
Amphictyonic CouncU to take vengeance upon the Phocians, and ac- 
cordingly induced this body to impose a heavy fine upon the Phocians, 
because they had cultivated a portion of the Cirrhsean plain, which, 
after the first sacred war, had been consecrated to the Delphian god,* 
and was to lie waste for ever. The Phocians pleaded that the pay- 
ment of the fine would ruin them; but instead of listening to their 
remonstrances, the Amphictyons doubled the amount, and threatened, 
in case of their continued refusal, to reduce them to the condition 
of serfs. Thus driven to desperation, the Phocians resolved to complete 
the sacrilege with which they had been branded, by seizing the very 
temple of Delphi itself, to the possession of which they asserted an 
ancient right, founded on a verse in Homer, in which the " rocky Pytho " 
was reckoned among the Phocian towns.! If they succeeded in seizing 
the temple, not only would all its treasures be at their command, 
but they would even be able to dictate the responses of the oracle. 
The leader and counsellor of this enterprise was Philomelus, who, 
with a force of no more than two thousand men, surprised and took 
Delphi. The Locrians of Amphissa, who came to the rescue of the 
temple, were defeated by him with great loss. Being now master of the 
temple, Philomelus destroyed the records containing the sentence of the 
Amphictyons, and appealed to all Greece against its injustice. At first, 
however, he carefully abstained from touching the sacred treasure ; but he 
levied large sums on the private property of the Delphians. He then 
fortified the temple afresh ; and, having hired more mercenaries, which 
swelled his force to five thousand men, invaded, the Locrian territory. 
After some petty skirmishes, the Locrians were finally defeated in a 
pitched battle ; whereupon they applied to the Thebans for assistance. 

§ 10. Meanwhile, Philomelus, being master of the oracle, extorted a 
decree from the priestess sanctioning all that he had done; and sent 
envoys to the principal Grecian cities, including Thebes, to vindicate his 
conduct, and to declare that the treasures of Delphi were untouched. 
The envoys succeeded in obtaining the alliance of Sparta and Athens, but 
from Thebes they were repulsed with threats. There, however, the 

* See p. 48. t Hiad, ii. 617. 



B. C. 352.] INTERFERENCE OF PHILIP. 

application of the Locrians met with a ready acquiesence ; and messages 
were sent by the Thebans to stir up the Thessalians and all the Northern 
tribes which belonged to the Amphictyonic Council. The Locrians now 
saw themselves threatened by a powerful combination, whilst from Athens, 
weakened by the Social War, and from Sparta, hampered by Megalopolis 
and Messene, they could expect but little aid. In this emei'gency Philo- 
melus threw off the scruples which he had hitherto assumed, and an- 
nounced that the sacred treasures should be converted into a fund for the 
payment of mercenaries. Crowds of adventurers now flocked on all sides 
to his standard, and he soon found himself at the head of ten thousand 
men. With these he again invaded Locris, and defeated the Thebans 
and Thessalians. Subsequently, however, the Thebans obtained large 
reinforcements, and, having become manifestly the strongest, put to death 
all Phocian prisoners, as being guilty of sacrilege. The war thus assumed 
the most barbarous character, and the Phocians, by way of self-preser- 
vation, were obliged to retaliate. The details of the struggle are not 
accurately known, but it appears that a great battle was at length fought, 
in which the Phocians were defeated and Philomelus killed. The victory, 
however, does not seem to have been sufficiently decisive to enable the 
Thebans to obtain possession of Delphi, and they subsequently returned 
home. 

Onomarchus, who succeeded his brother Philomelus in the command, 
carried on the war with vigor and success. He reduced both the West- 
em and Eastern Locrians, as well as the little state of Doris. He then 
invaded Boeotia, captured Orchomenus, and laid siege to Chseronea ; which, 
however, the Thebans compelled him to raise, and drove him back with 
some loss into Phocis. 

§ 11. Such was the state of the Sacred War when PhiHp first began to 
interfere in it. It was only, however, through his previous conquests in 
Thessaly that he was enabled to do so. Even before he could enter that 
country he had to reduce the town of Methone, which lay between him 
and the Thessalian frontier ; and it was at the siege of this place that he 
lost his eye by an arrow. After the capture of Methone, his road lay 
open into Thessaly ; and at the invitation of the Aleuadae of Larissa, who 
were disgusted with the tyranny exercised by the successors of Alexander 
of Pherae, he undertook an expedition against that state. Alexander him- 
self had been despatched through the machinations of his wife Thebe, who 
caused him to be murdered by her three half-brothers. These subse- 
quently ascended the throne, and exercised a tyranny as harsh as that of 
their predecessor. Pheroe, it seems, had shown some disposition to assist 
the Phocians ; and when Onomarchus heard that Philip was marching 
against it, he sent his brother, Phayllus, with a force of seven thousand 
men, to its assistance. Philip defeated Phayllus, but was subsequently 
routed and compelled to retreat by Onomarchus in person. The latter 
60 



474 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLII. 

then turned his arms against Coronea, which he reduced ; but the news 
that Phihp had re-entered Thessaly, at the head of twenty thousand men, 
soon compelled him again to march thither. Philip now assumed the 
character of a champion of the Delphic god, and made his soldiers Avear 
wreaths of laurel, plucked in the gi"oves of Tempe. Onomarchus was at 
the head of about an equal number of men : but in the encounter which 
ensued, apparently near the Gulf of Pagasse, he was slain, and his army 
totally defeated (b. c. 352). This victory made PhiUp master of Thessaly. 
He now directed his march southwards with the view of subduing the 
Phocians ; but upon reaching Thermopylae, he found the pass guarded by 
a strong Athenian force, and was compelled, or considered it more pru- 
dent, to retreat. 

§ 12. After his return from Thessaly, Philip's views were directed to- 
wards Thrace and the Chersonese ; but he first carried his arms so far in- 
to the interior of the country, that the Athenians could learn nothing of his 
movements. It was at this juncture that Demosthenes stepped forwards 
as the proclaimed opponent of Philip, and delivered the first of those cel- 
ebrated orations which from their subject have been called "the Philip- 
pics." Since the establishment of democracy at Athens, a certain degree 
of ability in public speaking was indispensable to a pubhc man. Hitherto, 
however, the leading men of Athens had, like Cimon and Pericles, been 
statesmen and warriors, as well as orators. But the great progress made 
in the art of rhetoric, as well as in the art of war, since the improved tac- 
tics introduced by Epameinondas, had now almost completely separated 
the professions of the orator and the soldier. Phocion, the contemporary 
of Demosthenes, was the last who combined the provinces of the two. 
The ears of the Athenians had become fastidious. They delighted in dis- 
plays of oratorical skill; and it was. this period which produced those 
speakers who have been called by way of eminence " the Attic orators." 
Demosthenes, the most famous of them all, was born in b. c. 382-381. 
Having lost his father at the early age of seven, his guardians abused 
their trust, and defrauded him of the greater part of his paternal inherit- 
ance. This misfortune, however, proved one of the causes which tended to 
make him an orator. Demosthenes, as he advanced towards manhood, per- 
ceived with indignation the conduct of his guardians, for which he resolved 
to make them answerable when the proper opportunity should arrive, by 
accusing them himself before the dicastery. The weakness of his bodily 
frame, which unfitted him for the exercises of the gymnasium, caused him 
to devote himself with all the more ardor to intellectual pursuits. He 
placed himself under the tuition of Iseeus, who then enjoyed a high repu- 
tation as an advocate ; and when he had acquired a competent degree of 
skill, he pleaded his cause against his guardians, and appears to have re- 
covered a considerable portion of his estate. This success encouraged him 
to speak in the public assembly ; but his first attempt proved a failure 



B C. 352.] DEMOSTHENES. — FIRST PHILIPPIC. 475 

and lie retired from tlie bema amidst the hootings and laughter of the cit- 
izens. The more judicious and candid among his auditors perceived, how- 
ever, marks of genius in his speech, and rightly attributed his failure to 
timidity and want of due preparation. Eunomus, an aged citizen, who 
met him wandering about the Peirseus in a state of dejection at his ill-suc- 
cess, bade him take courage and persevere. " Your manner of speaking," 
said he, " very much resembles that of Pericles ; you fail_ only through 
want of confidence. You are too much disheartened by the tumult of a 
popular assembly, and you do not take any pains even to acquire that 
strength of body which is requisite for the bema." Struck and encouraged 
by these remarks, Demosthenes withdrew awhile from public life, and de- 
voted himself perseveringly to remedy his defects. They were such as 
might be lessened, if not removed, by practice, and cionsisted chiefly of a 
weak voice, imperfect articulation, and ungraceful and inappropriate action. 
He derived much assistance from Satyrus, the actor, who exercised him 
in reciting passages from Sophocles and Eiiripides. He studied the best 
rhetorical treatises and orations, and is said to have copied the work of 
Thucydides with his own hand no fewer than eight times. He shut him- 
self up for two or three months together in a subterranean chamber, in 
order to practise composition and declamation. It may also be well sup- 
posed that he devoted no inconsiderable part of his attention to the laws of 
Athens and the politics of Greece. His perseverance was crowned with 
success ; and he, who on the first attempt had descended from the bema 
amid the ridicule of the crowd, became at last the most perfect orator the 
world has ever seen. 

§ 13. Demosthenes had established himself as a public speaker before 
the period which we have now reached ; but it is chiefly in connection with 
Philip that we are to view him as a statesman as well as an orator. 
Philip had shown his ambition by the conquest of Thessaly, and by the 
part he had taken in the Sacred War ; and Demosthenes now began to 
regard him as the enemy of the liberties of Athens and of Greece. In his 
first " Philippic," Demosthenes tried to rouse his countrymen to energetic 
measures against this formidable enemy ; but his warnings and exhorta- 
tions produced little efiect, for the Athenians were no longer distinguished 
by the same spirit of enterprise which had characterized them in tlie days 
of their supremacy. It is true they were roused to momentary action, to- 
wards the end of b. c. 352, by the news that Philip was besieging the 
fortress of Heraium on the Propontis ; but the armament which they 
voted, upon receiving the news, did not sail till the autumn of b. c. 351, 
and then on a reduced scale, under the command of Charidemus. For the 
next two years no important step was taken to curb the growing power of 
Philip ; and it was the danger of Olynthus which first induced the Athe- 
nians to prosecute the war with a little more energy. 

In 350 B. c, Philip having captured a town in Chalcidice^ Olynthua 



476 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIt 

began to tremble for her own safety, and sent envoys to Athens to crave 
assistance. Olynthus was still at the head of thirty -two Greek towns, and 
the confederacy was a sort of counterpoise to the power of Philip. It was 
on this occasion that Demosthenes delivered his three Olynthiac orations, 
in which he warmly advocated an alliance with Olynthus. 

§ 1 4. Demosthenes was opposed by a strong party, with which Phocion 
commonly acted. Phocion is one of the most singular and original char- 
acters in Grecian history. Naturally simple, upright, and benevolent, his 
mannei-s were nevertheless often rendered repulsive by a tinge of misan- 
anthropy and cynicism. He viewed the multitude and their affairs with a 
scorn which he was at no pains to disguise ; receiving their anger with 
indifference, and their praises with contempt. When a response from 
Delphi anjiounced to the Athenians that, though they were themselves 
unanimous, there was one man who dissented from them, Phocion stepped 
forwards, and said : " Do not trouble yourselves to seek for this re- 
fractory citizen ; — I am he, and I like nothing that you do." On another 
occasion, when one of his speeches was received with general applause, he 
turned round to his friends, and inquired : " Have I said anything bad ? " 
Phocion's whole art of oratory consisted in condensing his speeches into 
the smallest possible compass, without any attention to the smoothness of 
his periods or the grace of his language. Yet their terse and homely 
vigor was often heightened by a sort of dry humor, which produced more 
eifect than the most studied efforts of oratory. " "What, at your medita- 
tions, Phocion ? " inquired a friend, who perceived him wrapt up in 
thought. " Yes," he replied, " I am considering whether I can shorten 
what I have to say to the Athenians." His known probity also gave him 
weight with the assembly. He was the only statesman of whom Demos- 
thenes stood in awfe ; who was accustomed to say, when Phocion rose, 
" Here comes the pruner of my periods." But Phocion's desponding 
views, and his mistrust of the Athenian people, made him an ill statesman 
at a period which demanded the most active patriotism. He doubtless 
injured his country by contributing to check the more enlarged and 
patriotic views of Demosthenes ; and though his own conduct was pure 
and disinterested, he unintentionally threw his weight on the side of those 
who, like Demades and others, were actuated by the basest motives. 
This division of opinion rendered the operations of the Athenians for the 
aid of the Olynthians languid and desultory. Town after town of the 
confederacy fell before Philip ; and in B. c. 348, or early in 347, he laid 
siege to Olynthus itself. The city was vigorously defended ; but Philip at 
length gained admission through the treachery of Lasthenes and Euthy- 
crates, two of the leading men, Avhen he razed it to the ground and sold 
the inhabitants into slavery. The whole of the Chalcidian peninsula thus 
became a Macedonian province. Philip celebrated his triumph at Dium, 
a town on the borders of Thessaly ; where, on the occasion of a festival to 



B. C. 347.] EMBASSY TO PHILIP. 477 

the Muses, instituted by Archelaus, lie amused the people with banquets, 
games, and theatrical entertainments. 

§ 15. The prospects of Athens now became alarming. Her posses- 
sions in the Chersonese were threatened, as well as the freedom of the 
Greek towns upon the Hellespont. At this juncture Demosthenes en- 
deavored to persuade the Athenians to organize a confederacy among the 
Grecian states for the purpose of arresting a power which seemed to 
threaten the liberty of all ; and in this he was seconded by some of those 
politicians who usually opposed him. But though steps were taken to- 
wards this object, the attempt entirely failed. The attention of the 
Athenians was next directed towai'ds a reconciliation with Thebes. The 
progress of the Sacred War, to which we must now briefly revert, seemed 
favoraljle to such a project. After the death of Onomarchus, his brother 
Phayllus had assumed the command of the Phocians ; and as the sacred 
treasure was still unexhausted, he succeeded in obtaining large reinforce- 
ments of troops. The Spartans sent one thousand men ; the Achteans 
two thousand ; the Athenians five thousand foot and four hundred horse 
under Nausicles. With these forces Phayllus undertook a successful 
invasion of Boeotia ; and afterwards attacked the Epicnemidian Locrians, 
and took all their towns except Naryae. But in the course of the year 
Phayllus died, and was succeeded in the conduct of the war by Mnaseas, 
guardian of Phaltecus, the youthful son of Onomarchus. Mnaseas, how- 
ever, was soon slain, and Phaljecus himself then assumed the command. 
Under him the war was continued between the Phocians and Thebans, 
but without any decisive success on either side. The treasures of Delphi 
were nearly exhausted, and on the other hand the war was becoming 
every year more and more burdensome to the Thebans. It was at this 
Juncture that the Athenians, as before hinted, were contemplating a peace 
Avith Thebes ; nor did it seem improbable that one might be concluded, 
not only between those two cities, but among the Grecian states generally. 
It seems to have been this aspect of affairs that induced Philip to make 
several indirect overtures to the Athenians in the summer of B. c. 347. 
In spite of subsidies from Delphi the war had been very onerous to them, 
and they received these advances with joy, yet not without suspicion, as 
they were quite unable to divine Philip's motives for making them. On 
the motion of Philoci'ates, however, it was decreed that ten ambassadors 
should be despatched to Philip's court. Philocrates himself was at the 
head of them, and among the rest were the rival orators, Demosthenes 
and JEschines, and the actor Aristodemus. We have, however, no 
particulars on which we can rely respecting this embassy. All that we 
can gather in relation to it is from the personal recriminations of Demos- 
thenes and ^schines, and we can only infer on the whole that it was a 
miserable failure. Philip seems to have bribed some of the ambassadors, 
and to have cajoled the rest by his hospitable banquets and his winning 



478 HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XLII 



and condescending manners. Nothing decisive was done respecting Am- 
phipolis or the Phocians ; and as far as we can learn, the whole fruits of 
the embassy were some vague promises on the part of Phihp to respect 
the Athenian possessions in Thrace. Soon after the return of Philocrates 
and his colleagues, Antipater, Parmenio, and Eurylochus, three of Philip's 
most distinguished generals and statesmen, came on a mission to Athens, 
where they were entertained by Demosthenes. The basis of a treaty of 
peace and alliance seems now to have been arranged, in which Philip 
dictated his own terms. Another embassy, consisting probably of the 
former ten, was appointed to procure the ratification of this treaty by 
Philip ; and on the news that he was invading the dominions of Kerso- 
bleptes,* they were directed to hasten their departure, and to seek that 
monarch in whatever quarter he might be. With this view they pro- 
ceeded to the port of Oreus in Euboea ; but instead of following the advice 
of Demosthenes, and embarking for the Hellespont, which they might 
have reached in two or three days, they wasted some time at that place, 
and then proceeded by a circuitous route to Pella : hence they did not 
reach that city till upwards of three weeks after quitting Athens. Here 
they met ambassadors from other states concerned in the progress of the 
Sacred War, as Thebes, Phocis, Sparta, and Thessaly ; but Philip was 
still in Thrace, and they had to wait a month for his return. Even when 
he arrived at Pella, he delayed the final ratification of the treaty, and 
persuaded the ambassadors to accompany him on his march to Pherae in 
Thessaly, under pretence that he desired their mediation between the 
Pharsalians and Halus ; though his real motive undoubtedly was to gain 
time for invading Phocis. He at length swore to the treaty in Pherae ; 
but the Phocians were expressly excluded from it. 

§ 16. Scarcely had the Athenian ambassadors returned home, when 
Philip began his march towards Thermopylae. Demosthenes, on his 
return, protested against the acts of his colleagues, and his representations 
had such an effect, that the ambassadors were not honored with the usual 
vote of thanks. The main charge which he brought against his colleagues, 
and again^ ^schines in particular, was that of having deluded the people 
with false hopes respecting Philip's views towards Athens. But the 
opposite party had possession of the popular ear. Not only was nothing 
done for the Phocians, but a decree was even passed to convey the 
thanks of Athens to Philip, and to declare that, unless Delphi was de- 
livered up by the Phocians to the Amphictyons, the Athenians would 
help to enforce that step. The ambassadors were again directed to carry 
this decree to Philip ; but Demosthenes was so disgusted with it that 
he refused to go, and ^schines also declined, on the plea of ill-health. 

The Phocians now lay at the mercy of Philip. As soon as the king 

* Kersobleptes was king of Thrace, and an ally of the Athenians. — Ed. 



B. C. 346.] END OF THE SACRED WAB. 479 

had passed the straits of Thermopylae, Phalascus secured his own safety 
by concluding a treaty with Philip, by which he was permitted to retire 
into the Peloponnesus with eight thousand mercenaries. When Philip 
entered Phocis, all its towns surrendered unconditionally at his approach. 
Philip then occupied Delphi, where he assembled the Amphictyons to 
pronounce sentence upon those who had been concerned in the sacrilege 
committed there. The Council decreed that all the cities of Phocis, 
except Abae, should be destroyed, and their inhabitants scattered into 
villages containing not more than fifty houses each ; and that tliey should 
replace by yearly payments the treasures of the temple, estimated at the 
enormous sum of ten thousand talents, or nearly two millions and a half 
sterlmg. Sparta was deprived of her share in the Amphictyonic priv- 
ileges ; the two votes in the Council possessed by the Phocians were 
transferred to the kings of Macedonia ; and Philip was to share with the 
Thebans and Thessalians the honor of presiding at the Pythian games. 
These were no slight privileges gained by Philip. A seat in the Amphic- 
tyonic Council recognized him at once as a Grecian power, and would 
afford him occasion to interfere in the affairs of Greece. Thebes re- 
covered the places which she had lost in Boeotia. Such was the termi- 
nation of the Sacred War (b. c. 346). 



480 



lIlriXOEY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XLIIL 




The Plain of ChseronSa. 



CHAPTEE XLni. 



FROM THE END OF THE SACRED WAR TO THE DEATH OF PHILIP. 

\ 1. Eesults of the Sacred War. § 2. Macedonian Embassy to Athens. Second Philippic 
§ 3. Philip's Expedition into Thrace. § 4. Third Philippic. Progress of Phih'p. Siege 
of Perinthus. § 5. Phocion's Successes in Exibnea. § 6. Declaration of War between 
Athens and Macedon. Phocion compels Philip to evacuate the Chersonese. § 7. Charge 
of Sacrilege against the Amphissians. § 8. Philip appointed General by the Amphic- 
tyons, to conduct the War against Amphissa. § 9. He seizes Elatea. League between 
Athens and Thebes. § 10. Battle of Chseronea. § 11. Philip's extravagant Joy for his 
Victory. § 12. Congress at Corinth. Philip's Progress through the Peloponnesus. § 13. 
Philip's Domestic QaaiTels. § 14. Preparations for the Persian Expedition. § 15. Assassi- 
nation of Philip. 



§ 1. The result of the Sacred War rendered Macedon the leading state 
in Greece. Philip at once acquired by it military glory, a reputation for 
piety, and an accession of power. His ambitious designs were now too 
plain to be mistaken. The eyes of the blindest among the Athenians 
were at last opened ; the promoters of the peace which had been con- 
cluded with Philip incurred the hatred and suspicion of the people ; whilst 
on the other hand , Demosthenes rose higher than ever in public favor. 
They showed their resentment against Philip by omitting to send their 
usual deputation to the Pythian games at which the Macedonian monarch 
presided. 

It was either this omission, or the unwillingness of the Athenians to 
acknowledge Philip as a member of the Amphictyonic league, that induced 
him to send an embassy to Athens for the purpose of settling a point which 
neither his dignity nor his interest would permit to lie in abeyance. It 
was generally felt that the question was one of peace or war. Yet the 



B. C. 344.] SECOND PHILIPPIC. 481 

Athenians were so enraged against Philip, that those who were for main- 
taining peace with him could hardly obtain a hearing in the assembly. On 
this occasion we have the remarkable spectacle of -^schines and Demos- 
thenes speaking on the same side, though from widely different motives. 
The former adhered to his usual cori'upt pohcy in favor of Philip ; whilst 
Demosthenes, in supporting him, was actuated only by views of the most 
sagacious and disinterested policy. These he detailed and enforced in his 
Oration On the Peace, in which he persuaded the Athenians not to expose 
themselves at that time to the risk of a war with Philip, supported, as he 
would be, by the greater part of Greece. 

§ 2. Philip had now succeeded to the position lately occupied by Thebes, 
and in virtue of it prepared to exercise the same influence which that 
state had previously enjoyed in the Peloponnesus. He declared himself 
the protector of the Messenians, and the friend and ally of the Megalopoli- 
tans and Argives. Demosthenes was sent into Peloponnesus to endeavor 
to counteract Philip's proceedings in the peninsula ; but his mission led 
to no result. During his stay there, he had openly accused Philip of per- 
fidy ; and that monarch now sent an embassy to Athens, accompanied by 
envoys from Argos and Messene, to complain of so grievous an accusation. 
It was on this occasion that the Second Philippic of Demosthenes was 
delivered, which was chiefly directed against the orators who supported 
Philip (b. c. 344). In the following year a prosecution was instituted 
against ^schines and Philocrates for " malversation in their embassy " to 
the Macedonian court. The latter, conscious of his guilt, evaded the trial 
by flight ; and -^schines, who defended himself with great skill, was ac 
quitted by only thirty votes.* 

§ 3. Meanwhile, in b. c. 344, Philip overran and ravaged Ulyria ; and 
subsequently employed himself in regulating the affairs of Thessaly, where 
he occupied Pher« with a permanent Macedonian garrison. He was 
likewise busied with preparations for the still vaster projects which he 
contemplated, and which embraced an attack upon the Athenian colonies, 
as well as upon the Persian empire. For this purpose he had organized 
a considerable naval force, as well as an army ; and in the spring of 342 
B. c. he set out on an expedition against Thrace. His progress soon ap- 
peared to menace the Chersonese and the Athenian possessions in that 
quarter; and at length the Athenian troops under Diopeithes came into 
actual collision with the Macedonians, whilst the former were engaged in 
defending their allies from the encroachments of the Cardians, who were 
under the protection of Philip. Diopeithes likewise invaded that part of 
Thrace which had submitted to Philip, and, besides committing several 
acts of violence, seized a Macedonian envoy, who had come to treat for 



* See the speeches of Demosthenes and ^schines ivepi napa'!Tp«rj3f[as- 
61 



482 HISTORY OF GREECE. |ChAP. XLIIL 

the release of some prisoners, and refused to dismiss Tiim without a con- 
siderable ransom. 

§ 4. Philip despatched a letter of complaint and remonstrance to the 
Athenians on the subject of these attacks, which gave occasion to the speech 
of Demosthenes On the Chersonese (b. c. 341), in which he directed the 
attention of the people from the more immediate subject of the character 
and proceedings of Diopeithes to the more general question of the best means 
of resisting Philip. This oration was soon followed by the Third Philippic 
a still more vigorous call to action. Our accounts of Philip's movements 
at this time are scanty and uncertain. Diopeithes was retained in the 
command of the Athenian troops ; and Philip must have continued gradu- 
ally to push his conquests, since in this year (341) we find him beginning 
to attack the Greek cities north of the Hellespont. He first besieged 
and captured Selymbria on the Propontis, and then turned his arms against 
Perinthus. The latter city was not only sti'ong by nature, being seated 
on a lofty promontory surrounded on two sides by the sea, but also well 
fortified. It was built on a series of terraces rising one above another ; 
so that when Philip, by means of the improved artillery which he em- 
ployed on this occasion, had succeeded in battering down the outer wall, 
he found himself in front of a fresh rampart, formed by houses standing 
on higher ground, and connected together by a wall carried across the 
streets. In this siege Philip was assisted by his fleet, which had previ- 
ously intercepted and captured twenty Athenian vessels laden with corn. 
But all his efforts to capture Perinthus proved unavailing, as both the 
Byzantines and the Persians — the latter probably at the instigation of 
the Athenians — continually found means to supply it with arms and pro- 
visions. Finding his progress thus checked, Philip left half of his army 
to prosecute the siege, and with the remainder proceeded to the attack of 
Byzantium itself, which he hoped to find unprepared. 

§ 5. Meanwhile, the arms of Athens, under the conduct of Phocion, had 
been successful in Euboea, whither Demosthenes had roused his country- 
men to send an expedition in the autumn of 341 b. c, for the purpose ot 
counteracting the influence of Macedon in that quarter, and thus erecting 
another barrier against the encroachments of Philip. Oreus and Eretria, 
two of the principal cities in the island, were in the hands of despots sup- 
ported by Philip ; but Callias of Chalcis having formed a plan to reduce 
all Euboea under his own dominion, Demosthenes seized the opportunity 
to unite the Athenian arms with his ; and Phocion, with the assistance 
of Callias, expelled the despots Cleitarchus and Philistides from Eretria 
and Oreus. For his advice on this occasion the Athenians honored De- 
mosthenes with a golden crown. The same Callias, or perhaps an Athe- 
nian commander of that name, also did good service at this time by a naval 
expedition into the Gulf of Pagasae, when he took the towns on the coast, 
and made prize of a considerable quantity of Macedonian merchantmen. 



B. C. 341.] "WAR BETWEEN ATHENS AND MACEDON. 483 

§ 6. Although Athens and Macedon were still nominally at peace, it ia 
evident that the state of things just described was incompatible with its 
further maintenance. Philip addressed a long letter, or rather manifesto, 
to the Athenians, (which has come down to us,) in which he complained 
of the acts by which they had violated the existing treaty, recapitulated 
the legitimate grounds which he had for hostility, and concluded with a 
sort of declaration of war. Demosthenes was not behindhand in accepting 
this challenge. He excited his countrymen to pass a decree for war, to 
take down the column on which the treaty had been inscribed, and to 
equip a fleet for the immediate relief of Byzantium, then besieged by 
Philip. The expedition was intrusted to Chares, in whose hands it proved, 
a miserable failure ; though he perfectly succeeded in making both himself 
and the Athenian name odious and suspected among the allies, by his op- 
pressions, and by the large sums which he extorted under the name of be- 
nevolences. The orators of the Macedonian party took occasion from the 
ill success of Chares to disgust the Athenians with the war, and they began 
to repent of having sent any succors to Byzantium. But Phocion, who 
did not act with those orators on this occasion, stood up and told the peo- 
ple, that they should not be angry at the distrust of their allies, but 
rather at their own generals, who were altogether unworthy of confidence. 
It is they, said he, who cause you to be suspected by the very people 
who cannot be saved without your help. The Athenians were so struck 
with these representations, that they immediately superseded Chares, and 
appointed Phocion in his place. Phocion sailed with one hundred and 
twenty triremes ; and his high reputation for probity and honor caused 
him to be immediately admitted with his forces within the walls of Byzan- 
tium. Philip was now forced to raise the siege, not only of that town, but 
of Perinthus also, and finally to evacuate the Chersonesus altogether. 
For these acceptable services the grateful Byzantians erected a colossal 
statue in honor of Athens. 

After his repulse from the Chersonesus, Philip marched to the aid of 
Atheas, king of the Scythians, who had invoked his assistance against 
the tribes on the banks of the Danube. Before he arrived, however, the 
danger had ceased, and Atheas dismissed him with an insulting message. 
Hereupon Philip crossed the Danube, defeated the Scythians, and returned 
with an immense booty. But as he was passing through the country of 
the Triballi they demanded a share of the spoil ; and upon being refused, 
gave battle to the Macedonians, in which Philip was so severely wounded 
that he was reported to be dead. Probably Philip's chief object in under- 
taking this expedition was to withdraw the attention of the Greeks from 
his ambitious projects, and to delude them into the belief that other affairs 
were now engaging his attention. But meanwhile his partisans were 
not idle, and events soon occurred which again summoned him into the 
heart of Greece. 



484 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIII. 

§ 7. In the spring of 339 b. c. JEschines was appointed with three 
others to represent Athens in the Amphictyonic Council. In this assem- 
bly the deputies of the Locrians of Amphissa, stimulated, it is said, by the 
Thebans, charged the Athenians with sacrilege, for having, in commemo- 
ration of their victory over the Persians and Thebans, dedicated some 
golden shields in a chapel at Delphi before it had been regularly conse- 
crated. The Locrians themselves, however, were, it seems, amenable to 
a similar charge, for having cultivated and used for their own benefit the 
very land which had been the subject of the Sacred War against the Pho- 
cians ; and ^schines, irritated by the language of the deputies from Am- 
phissa, denounced them as guilty of sacrilege. A proclamation was in 
consequence issued requiring all the Delphians, as well as the members of 
the Amphictyonic Council, to assemble and vindicate the honor of the god ; 
and on the following day they marched down to Cirrha with spades and 
pickaxes, and destroyed some buildings which the Amphissians had erected 
there. But as they returned, the Amphissians lay in wait for them, and 
they narrowly escaped with their lives. Hereupon, the Amphictyons is- 
sued a decree, naming a certain day on which the Council was to assemble 
at Thermopylae, for the purpose of bringing the Amphissians to justice. 

§ 8. -Slschines was strongly suspected of having adopted the conduct 
which he pursued on this occasion in order to play into the hands of Philip. 
Demosthenes procured a decree, preventing any Athenians from attend- 
ing the Council at Thermopylae ; and the Thebans, who were friendly to 
the Amphissians, also absented themselves. But, with these exceptions, 
the meeting was attended by deputies from the other Grecian states ; war 
was declared against the Amphissians ; and Cottyphus was appointed to 
lead an army against them. Demosthenes asserts that this expedition 
failed ; but according to other accounts it -was successful, and a fine waS 
laid upon the Amphissians, which, however, they refused to pay. Accord- 
ingly, at the next ordinary meeting of the Amphictyons, either in the au- 
tumn of 339 or spring of 338, Philip, who had now returned from Thrace, 
was elected their general for the purpose of carrying out the decree 
against Amphissa. 

§ 9. Early in 338 Philip marched southwards ; but instead of proceed- 
ing in the direction of Amphissa, he suddenly seized Elatea, the chief 
town in the eastern part of Phocis, and began to restore its fortifications ; 
thus showing clearly enough that his real design Avas against Boeotia and 
Attica. Intelligence of this event reached Athens at night, and caused 
extraordinary alarm. The market was cleared of the retail dealers, who 
commonly occupied it ; their wicker booths were burned, and the whole 
city prepared as if for an immediate siege. At daybreak, on the follow- 
ing morning, the Five Hundred met in the senate-house, and the people 
assembled in the Pnyx, where the news was formally repeated. The her- 
ald then gave the usual invitation to speak, but nobody was inclined to 



B. 0. 338] BATTLE OE CH^RONEA. 485 

come forwards. At length Demosthenes ascended the bema, and calmed 
the fears of the people by pointmg out that Philip was evidently not act- 
ing in concert with the Thebans, as appeared from the fact of his having 
thought it necessary to secure Elatea. He then pressed upon the assem- 
bly the necessity for making the most vigorous preparations for defence, 
and especially recommended them to send an embassy to Thebes, in order 
to persuade the Thebans to unite with them against the common enemy. 
This advice was adopted, and ten envoys were appointed to proceed tc 
Thebes, amongst whom was Demosthenes himself. A counter-embassy 
had already arrived in that city from Macedonia and Thessaly, and it was 
with great difficulty that the Athenian envoys at length succeeded in per- 
suading the Thebans to shut their gates against Philip. Athens had made 
vigorous preparations, and had ten thousand mercenaries in her service. 
Philip, on the other hand, Avas at the head of thirty thousand men ; but 
after the conclusion of the alliance between Thebes and Athens he did not 
deem it prudent to march directly against the latter city, and therefore 
proceeded towards Amphissa, as if in prosecution of the avowed object of 
the war. He sent a manifesto to his allies in Peloponnesus, requiring 
their assistance in what he represented as a purely religious object ; but 
his application was coldly received. 

§ 10. The details of the war that followed are exceedingly obscure. 
Philip appears to have again opened negotiations with the Thebans, 
which failed ; and we then find the combined Theban and Athenian armies 
marching out to meet the Macedonians. The former gained some advan- 
tage in two engagements ; but the decisive battle was fought on the 7 th of 
August, in the plain of Chseronea in Boeotia, near the frontier of Phocis. 
In the Macedonian army was Philip's son, the youthful Alexander, who 
was intrusted with the command of one of the wings ; and it was a charge 
made by him on the Theban sacred band, that decided the fortune of the 
day. The sacred band was cut to pieces, without flinching from the 
ground which it occupied, and the remainder of the combined army was 
completely routed. Demosthenes, who was serving as a foot-soldier in the 
Athenian ranks, has been absurdly reproached with cowardice because he 
participated in the general flight. An interesting memorial of this battle 
still remains. The Thebans who fell in the engagement were buried on 
the spot, and their sepulchre was surmounted by a lion in stone, as an em- 
blem of their courageous spirit. This lion was still seen by Pausanias, 
when he visited Chteronea in the second century of the Christian era. 
It afterwards disappeared, though the site of the sepulchre continued to be 
marked by a large mound of earth ; but a few years ago this tumulus was 
excavated, and a colossal lion discovered, deeply imbedded in its interior.* 



* This marble lion is in fragments. It is of remarkably fine workmanship. The head 
lies on the ground, looking upwards, and the noble expression given to it by the artist ia 
•till very impressive and significant. — Ed. 



486 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIII 

The battle of Chaeronea crushed the liberties of Greece, and made it in 
reality a province of the Macedonian monarchy. 

To Athens herself the blow was almost as fatal as that of JEgospotami. 
Such was the consternation it created in that city, that many of the 
wealthier citizens prepared for immediate flight ; and it was found neces- 
sary to arrest emigration by a decree which made it a capital offence. 
Demosthenes roused his fellow-citizens by his energy and eloquence to 
adopt the most vigorous measures for defending the city, and contributed 
three talents out of his own private fortune towards the repair of the walls. 
He was appointed to pronounce the funeral oration over those slain at 
Chgeronea ; a proof that the Athenians did not consider him guilty of anj 
dereliction of duty in that engagement ; but Lysicles, the Athenian gen- 
eral, was brought to trial, and condemned to death. 

§ 11. The exultation of Philip at his victory knew no bounds. He eel 
ebrated his triumph with drunken orgies ; and, reeling from the banquet 
to the field of battle, tie danced over the dead, at the same time singing 
and beating time to the opening words of the decree of Demosthenes, 
which happened to have the rhythm of a comic Iambic verse.* It is said 
that the orator Demades put an end to this ridiculous and unroyal exhi- 
bition by reminding Philip, " that, though fortune had placed him in the 
position of Agamemnon, he preferred playing the part of Thersites." 
But when Philip had returned to his sober senses, the manner in which 
he used his victory excited universal surprise. He dismissed the Athe- 
nian prisoners, not only without ransom, but with all their baggage, and 
some of them he eVen provided with new apparel. He then voluntarily 
offered a peace on terms more advantageous than the Athenians them- 
selves would have ventured to propose. They were, indeed, required to 
relinquish a part of their foreign dependencies ; but they were in some 
degree comjiensated for this by being put in possession of Oropus, of 
which the Thebans were now deprived. Philip, indeed, seems to have 
regarded Athens with a sort of love and respect, as the centre of art and 
refinement, for his treatment of the Thebans was very different, and 
marked by great harshness and severity. They w'ere compelled to recaU 
their exiles, in whose hands the government was placed, whilst a Macedo- 
nian garrison was established in the Cadmea. They were also deprived 
of their sovereignty over the Boeotian towns, and Platsea and Orchomenus 
were restored, and again filled with a population hostile to Thebes. 

§ 12. But the mildness of Philip's conduct towards Athens, though it 
bore the appearance of magnanimity, and afforded matter for triumph to 
the orators of the peace party, was, after all, perhaps in no small degree 
the result of policy. It was by no means certain that, if Philip laid siege 
to Athens, he would be able to take the city ; at all events, the siege 

* Arjfiocrdtvrjs Arjfioadivovs Ilatai'iei'? raS' emev. 



B. C.337.] Philip's domestic quarrels. 487 

would be a protracted one ; the exasperated Thebans lay in his rear ; and 
the attempt would certainly delay the more brilliant enterprise which he 
had long meditated against Persia. For this latter purpose he now con- 
vened a congress of the Grecian states at Corinth, though its ostensible 
object was the settlement of the affairs of Greece. Sparta was the only 
state unrepresented in this assembly. War was declared against Persia, 
Philip was appointed generalissimo of the expedition, and each state was 
assessed in a certain contingent of men or ships. But before he returned 
to the North of Greece, he determined to chastise Sparta for her ill-dis- 
guised hostility. His march through Pelo[)onnesus, and back by the 
western coast, though he here and there met with resistance, resembled 
rather a royal progress than an expedition into a hostile country. The 
western .states noi-tli of the isthmus now siibmittcJ to liis authority, and a 
Macedonian gnri'i>on was phued in Anjbrattia. Byzantium al>o executed 
a treat}' with Pliilij), \\liii'h \^■a- virtucilly an act of subjection. Having 
thus esialih'slied his ausliority throughout Greece, he returned to Mace- 
donia in the autumn of a. C. 338, in order to prepare for his Persian ex- 
pedition. 

§ 13. But the fortune of Philip, which had triumphed over all hia 
foreign enemies, was destined to be arrested by the feuds which arose in 
the bosom of his own family. Soon after his return to Macedonia, and 
pi'obably in the spring of 337, he celebrated his nuptials with Cleopatra, 
die beautiful niece of Attains, one of his generals. He had already sev- 
eral wives, for he had adopted the Eastern custom of polygamy ; but it 
was Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epeirus, by whom Philip 
had become the father of Alexander, who regarded herself as his legiti- 
mate queen ; a violent and imperious woman, who prided herself on the 
ancient nobility of her family, w^hich traced its descent from Pyrrhus, son 
of Achilles. The banquet which followed the wedding was marked by an 
extraordinary scene. When the cup had freely circulated, and wine had 
begun to unlock the hearts of the guests. Attains uncautiously disclosed 
the ambitious views with which his daughter's marriage had inspired him, 
by calling upon the company to invoke the gods to bless the union they 
were celebrating with a legitimate heir to the throne. Fired at this ex- 
pression, which seemed to convey a reflection on his birth, the young 
prince Alexander hurled his goblet at Attains, exclaiming, " Am I then 
called a bastard ? " Philip at these words started from his couch, and, 
seizing his sword, rushed towards Alexander, whom he would probably 
have slain, had not his foot slipped and caused him to fall. Alexander 
rose and left the banqueting-hall ; but as he withdrew levelled a taunt at 
his prostrate parent. " Behold the man," he exclaimed, " who was about 
to pass from Europe to Asia, but who has been overthrown in going from 
9ne couch to another ! " 

Alexander and his mother Olympias now hastened to quit Macedonia. 



4:88 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLTTT. 

The latter found refuge at the court of her brother Alexander, king of 
Epeirus, whilst the former took up his abode in Illyria. The fugitives 
appear to have stirred up both these countries to wage war against Philip, 
who however at length contrived to effect a show of reconciliation. Through 
the mediation of a friend, he induced Alexander to return to Pella, and 
he averted the hostility of his brother-in-law, the king of Epeirus, by 
offering him the hand of his daughter, Cleopatra. Oljmpias was now 
compelled to return to Philip's court ; but both she and Alexander har- 
bored an implacable resentment against him. 

§ 14. These domestic disturbances delayed Philip's expedition during 
the year 337; but in the following spring he appears to have sent some 
forces into Asia, under the command of Attains, Parmenio, and Amyntas. 
These were designed to engage the Greek cities of Asia in the expedition, 
and to support the disaffected subjects of Persia. But before quitting 
Macedonia, Philip determined to provide for the safety of his dominions 
by celebrating the marriage of his daughter, with Alexander of Epeirus. 
It was solemnized at -S^gae, the ancient capital of Macedonia, with much 
pomp, including banquets, and musical and theatrical entertainments. 
Most of the Grecian towns sent their deputies to the festival, bringing 
crowns of gold and other presents to the king. But a terrible catastrophe 
was impending, which several omens are said to have predicted. The 
oracle of Delphi, when consulted by Philip, as head of the Amphictyons, 
respecting the issue of his Eastern expedition, responded with its usual 
happy ambiguity, — " The bull is crowned, everything is ready, and the 
sacrificer is at hand." And the player, Neoptolemus, who had been en- 
gaged to recite some verses during the nuptial banquet, chose an ode which 
spoke of power, pride, and luxury, and of the rapid and stealthy approach 
of death, which terminates in a moment the most ambitious expectations. 

§ 15. The day after the nuptials was dedicated to theatrical entertain- 
ments. The festival was opened with a procession of the images of the 
twelve Olympian deities, with M'hich was associated that of Phihp himself. 
The monarch took part in the procession, dressed in white robes, and 
crowned with a chaplet. A little behind him walked his son and his new 
son-in-law, whilst his body-guards followed at some distance, in order that 
the person of the sovereign might be seen by all his subjects. Whilst 
thus proceeding through the city, a youth suddenly i-ushed out of the crowd, 
and, drawing a long sword which he had concealed under his clothes, 
plunged it into PhiUp's side, who fell dead upon the spot. The assassin 
was pursued by some of the royal guards, and, having stumbled in his flight, 
was despatched before he could reach the place where horses had been 
provided for his escape. His name was Pausanias. He was a youth oi 
noble birth, and we are told that his motive for taking PhiHp's life was 
that the king had refused to punish an outrage which Attains had commit- 
ted against him. Both Olympias and her son Alexander were suspected 



B. C. 336.] ASSASSINATION OF PHILIP. 489 

of being concerned in the murder. Olympias is said to have prepared the 
horses for the escape of the assassin ; and it is certain that she manifested 
an extravagant satisfaction at Philip's death. The suspicion that Olym- 
pias was privy to her husband's assassination is considerably strengthened 
by the improbability that Pausanias, without incitement from some other 
quarter, should have avenged himself on Philip rather than on Attains, 
the actual perpetrator of the injury which he had received. With regard 
to Alexander, however, there is no evidence worth a moment's attention 
to inculpate him ; and though an eminent historian * has not scrupled to 
condemn him as a parricide, yet we should hesitate to brand him, on such 
slender suspicions, with a crime which seems foreign to his character. 

Thus fell Philip of Macedon in the twenty-fourth year of his reign and 
forty-seventh of his age (b. c. 336). Wlien we reflect upon his achieve- 
ments, and how, partly by policy and partly by arms, he converted his 
originally poor and distracted kingdom into the mistress of Greece, we 
must acknowledge him to have been an extraordinary, if not a great man, 
in the better sense of that term. His views and his ambition were cer- 
tainly as large as those of his son Alexander, but he was prevented by a 
premature death from carrying them out ; nor would Alexander himself 
have been able to perform his great achievements had not Philip handed 
down to him all the means and instruments which they required. 

* Niebuhr. 




Bust of Demosthenes. 



490 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XLIV 




Battle of Issus. From a Mosaic at Pompeii, now in tiie Museo Borbonico at Naples. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 



} 1. Edncation of Alexander. § 2. Rejoicings at Athens for Philip's death. Movements im 
Greece. ^ 4. Alexander overawes the Malecontents, and is appointed Generalissimo for the 
Persian War. § 4. Alexander subdues the Triballians, Geta, Dlyrians, and Taulantiana. 
§ 5. Revolt and Destruction of Thebes. § 6. Alexander prepares to invade Persia. Na- 
ture of that Empire. § 7. Alexander crosses the Hellespont. § 8. Battle of the Granictis. 
§ 9. Alexander overruns Asia Minor. The Gordian Knot. § 10. March through Cilicia. 
Battle of Issus. Victory. ^ 11. Conquest of Phoenicia. Siege of Tyre. § 12. Alex 
ander marches into Egypt. Foundation of Alexandria. Oracle of Ammon. ^ 13. Battle 
of Arbela. § 14. Alexander takes Possession of Babylon, Susa, and Persepohs. § 15. 
March to Ecbatana, and Pursuit of Darius. Death of Darius. § 16. March through 
Hyrcania, Asia, and Drangiana. Conspiracy of Philotas. § 17. Alexander crosses the 
Oxus. Death of Bessus. Reduction of Sogdiana. Alexander marries Roxana. § 18. 
Murder of Clitus. § 19. Plot of the Pages. Alexander invades the Penjab, and defeats 
Porus. Marches as far as the Hyphasis. § 20. Descent of the Hydaspes and Indus. 
§ 21. March through Gedrosia. Voyage of Nearchus. § 22. Arrival at Snsa. Intermar- 
riages of the Greeks and Persians. Mutiny of the Army. § 23. Death of Hephsestion. 
Alexander takes up his Residence at Babylon. His Death. § 24. Character. 



§ 1 . Notwithstanding the suspicions of Olympias and Alexander, it 
does not appear that Phihp liad ever really entertained the design of de- 
priving Alexander of the throne. At the time of his father's death he 
was in his twentieth year, having been born in b. c. 356. At a very ten- 
der age he displayed a spirit which endeared him to his father. His early 
education was intrusted to Leonidas, a kinsman of his mother, a man of 
severe and parsimonious character, who trained him with Spartan sim- 
plicity and hardihood ; whilst Lysimachus, a sort of under-governor, early 
inspired the young prince with ambitious notions, by teaching him to love 
and emulate the heroes of the Iliad. According to the traditions of bis 
family, the blood of Achilles actually ran in the veins of Alexander ; and 



B. C. 336.] REJOICINGS AT ATHENS FOR PHILIP's DEATH. 491 

Lysimachus nourished the feeling which that circumstance was calculated 
to awaken, by giving him the name of that hero, whilst he called Philip 
Peleus, and himself Phoenix. But the most striking feature in Alexan- 
der's education was, that he had Aristotle for his teacher, and that thus 
the greatest conqueror of the material world received the instructions of 
him who has exercised the most extensive empire over the human intel- 
lect. It was probably at about the age of thirteen that he first received 
the lessons of Aristotle, and they can hardly have continued more than 
three years, for Alexander soon left the schools for the employments of 
active life. At the age of sixteen we find him regent of Macedonia dur- 
ing Philip's absence ; and at eighteen we have seen him filling a promi- 
nent military post at the battle of Choeronea. 

§ 2. On succeeding to the throne, Alexander announced his intention 
of prosecuting his father's expedition into Asia ; but it was first necessary 
for him to settle the affairs of Greece, where the news of Philip's assassina- 
tion, and the accession of so young a prince, had excited in several states 
a hope of shaking off the Macedonian yoke. Athens was the centre of 
these movements. Demosthenes, who was informed of Philip's death by 
a special messenger, resolved to avail himself of the suj^erstition of his 
fellow-citizens by a pious fraud. He went to the senate-house and de- 
clared to the Five Hundred that Zeus and Athena had forewarned him in 
a dream of some gi-eat blessing that was in store for the commonwealth. 
Shortly afterwards public couriers arrived with the news of Philip's death. 
Demosthenes, although in mourning for the recent loss of an only daughter, 
now came abroad dressed in wliite, and crowned with a chaplet, in wliich 
attire he was seen sacrificing at one of the public altars. He also moved 
a decree that Philip's death should be celebrated by a public thanksgiving, 
and that religious honors should be paid to the memory of Pausanias. 
Phocion certainly showed a more generous spirit in disapproving of these 
proceedings. " Nothing," he observed, " betrays a more dastardly turn of 
mind than expressions of joy for the death of an enemy. And truly you 
have fine reason to rejoice, when the army you fought with at Chferonea 
is only reduced by one man ! " In this last remark, indeed, he depreciat- 
ed the abilities of Philip, as much as Demosthenes was inclined to under- 
rate the abilities of Alexander. During his embassy to Pella, the Athe- 
nian orator had conceived a mean opinion of the youthful prince, whom he 
now compared to Homer's Margites, and assured the Athenians that he 
would spend all his time in either prosecuting his studies, or inspecting the 
entrails of victims. At the same time Demosthenes made vigorous prep- 
arations for action. He was already in correspondence with the Persian 
court for the purpose of thwarting Philip's projected expedition into Asia ; 
and he now despatched envoys to the principal Grecian states for the pur- 
pose of exciting them against Macedon. Sparta, and the whole Pelopon- 
nesus, with the exception of Megalopoli^and Messenia, seemed inclined to 



492 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLIV 

shake off their compulsory alliance. Even the Thebans rose against the 
dominant oligarchy, although the Cadmea was in the hands of the Mace- 
donians. 

§ 3. But the activity of Alexander disconcerted all these movements 
He retained the Thessalians in obedience partly by flattery, partly by a 
display of force, and having marched through their territory, he assembled 
the Amphictyonic Council at Thermopylae, who conferred upon him the 
command with which they had invested his father during the Sacred War. 
He then advanced rapidly upon Thebes, and thus prevented the medi- 
tated revolution. The Athenians were now seized with alarm, and sent 
an embassy to deprecate the wrath of Alexander, and to offer to him the 
same honors and privileges which they had before conferred upon Phihp. 
Demosthenes was appointed one of the envoys, but when he had proceeded 
as far as the confines of Attica, he was filled with apj^rehension respecting 
Alexander's intentions, and found a pretence for returning home. The 
other ambassadors were graciously received, and their excuses accepted. 
Alexander then convened a general congress at Corinth, which, as on the 
former occasion, was attended by all the Grecian states except Sparta. 
Here he was appointed generalissimo for the Persian war in place of his 
father. Most of the philosophers and persons of note near Corinth came 
to congratulate him on this occasion ; but Diogenes of Sinope, who was 
then living in one of the suburbs of Corinth, did not make his appearance. 
Alexander therefore resolved to pay a visit to the eccentric Cynic, whoiQ 
he found basking in the sun. On the approach of Alexander with a nu- 
merous retinue, Diogenes raised himself up a little, and the monarch affa- 
bly inquired how he could serve him ? " By standing out of my sunshine," 
replied the churlish philosopher. Alexander was struck with surprise at 
a behavior to which he was so little accustomed ; but whilst his courtiers 
were ridiculing the manners of the cynic, he turned to them and said, 
" "Were I not Alexander, I should like to be Diogenes." 

§ 4. The result of the congress might be considered a settlement of the 
affairs of Greece. Alexander could very well afford to despise Sparta's 
obsolete pretensions to the supremacy of Greece, and did not deem it worth 
while to undertake an expedition for the purpose of bringing her to rea- 
son. He then returned to Macedonia, in the hope of being able to begin 
his Persian expedition in the spring of b. c. 335 ; but reports of disturb- 
ances among the Thracians and Triballians diverted his attention to that 
quarter. He therefoi-e crossed Mount Htemus (the Balkan) and marched 
into the territory of the Triballians, defeated their forces, and pursued 
them to the Danube, where they fortified themselves in an island. Leav- 
ing them in that position, Alexander crossed the river by means of a fleet 
which he had caused to be sent from Byzantium, and proceeded to attack 
the Getse. The barbarians fled at his approach, and Alexander, who had 
acquired a large booty, regained me banks of the Danube, where he re- 



B. C. 335.] ALEXANDER DESTROYS THEBES. 493 

ceived the submissions of the Danubian tribes, and admitted them into the 
Macedonian alhance. Thence he marched against the lUyrians and Tau- 
lantians, who were meditating an attack upon his kingdom, and speedily- 
reduced them to obedience. 

§ 5. During Alexander's absence on these expeditions, no tidings were 
heard of him for a considerable time, and a report of his death was indus- 
triously spread in Southern Greece. The Thebans rose and besieged the 
Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea, at the same time invitmg other states 
to declare their independence. Demosthenes was active in aiding the 
movement. He persuaded the Athenians to furnish the Thebans with 
subsidies, and to assure them of their support and alHance. But the ra- 
pidity of Alexander again crushed the insurrection in the bud. Before 
the Thebans discovered that the report of his death was false, he had al- 
ready arrived at Onchestus in Boeotia. Alexander was willing to afford 
them an opportunity for repentance, and marched slowly to the foot of the 
Cadmea. But the leaders of the insurrection, believing themselves irre- 
trievably compromised, replied with taunts to Alexander's proposals for 
peace, and excited the people to the most desperate resistance. An en- 
gagement was prematurely brought on by one of the generals of Alexan- 
der, in which some of the Macedonian troops were put to the rout ; but 
Alexander, coming vip with the phalanx wliilst the Thebans were in the 
disorder of pursuit, drove them back in turn and entered the gates along 
with them, when a fearful massacre ensued, committed principally by the 
Thracians in Alexander's service. Six thousand Thebans are said to 
have been slain, and thirty thousand were made prisoners. The doom of 
the conquered city was referred to the allies, who decreed her destruction. 
The grounds of the verdict bear the impress of a tyrannical hypocrisy. 
They rested on the conduct of the Thebans during the Persian war, on 
their treatment of Platasa, and on their enmity to Athens. The inhabit- 
ants were sold as slaves, and all the houses, except that of Pindar, were 
levelled with the ground. The Cadmea was preserved to be occupied by 
a Macedonian garrison. Tliebes seems to have been thus harshly treated 
as an example to the rest of Greece, for towards the other states, which 
were now eager to make their excuses and submission, Alexander showed 
much forbearance and lenity. The conduct of the Athenians exhibits 
them deeply sunk in degradation. When they heard of the chastisement 
inflicted upon Thebes, they immediately voted, on the motion of Demos- 
thenes, that ambassadors should be sent to congratulate Alexander on his 
safe return from his Northern expeditions, and on his recent success. 
Alexander in reply wrote a letter, demanding that eight or ten of the lead- 
ing Athenian orators should be delivered up to him. At the head of the 
list was Demosthenes. In this dilemma, Phocion, who did not wish to 
speak upon such a question, was loudly called upon by the people for his 
opinion ; when he rose and said that the persons whom Alexander de- 



494 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV 

manded had brouglit the state into such a miserable plight that they de- 
served to be surrendered, and that for, his own part he should be very 
happy to die for the commonwealth. At the same time he advised them 
to try the effect of intercession with Alexander ; and it was at last only 
by his own personal application to that monarch, with whom he was a 
great favorite, that the orators were spared. According to another 
account, however, the wrath of Alexander was appeased by the orator 
Demades, who received from the Athenians a reward of five talents for 
his services. It was at this time that Alexander is said to have sent a 
present of one hundred talents to Phocion. But Phocion asked the per- 
sons who brought the money, " Why he should be selected for such a 
bounty ? " " Because," they replied, " Alexander considers you the only 
just and honest man." " Then," said Phocion, " let him suffer me to be 
what I seem, and to retain that character." And when the envoys went 
to his house and beheld the frugality with which he lived, they perceived 
that the man who refused such a gift was wealthier than he who offered it. 

§ 6. Having thus put the affairs of Greece on a satisfactory footing, 
Alexander marched for the Hellespont in the spring of B. c. 334, leaving 
Antipater regent of Macedonia in his absence, with a force of twelve thou- 
sand foot and fifteen hundred horse. Alexander's own army consisted of 
only about thirty thousand foot and five thousand horse. Of the infantry 
about twelve thousand were Macedonians, and these composed the pith of 
the celebrated Macedonian phalanx. Such was the force with which he 
proposed to attack the immense but ill-cemented empire of Persia, which, 
like the empires of Turkey and Austria in modern times, consisted of vari- 
ous nations and races, with different religions and manners, and speaking 
different languages ; the only bond of union being the dominant mihtary 
power of the ruling nation, which itself formed only a small numerical por- 
tion of the empire. The remote provinces, like those of Asia Minor, were 
administered by satraps and military governors, who enjoyed an almost in- 
dependent authority, frequently transmitting their provinces, like heredi- 
tary fiefs, to their heirs, and sometimes, as we have already seen in the 
course of this history, defying their sovereign or their brother satraps in 
open war. The expedition of Cyrus, and the subsequent retreat of the 
Ten Thousand Greeks, had shown how easy it was for a handful of reso- 
lute and well-disciplined men to penetrate into the very heart of an 
empire thus weakened by disunion, and composed for the most part of an 
unwarlike population, and we are not therefore surprised at the confidence 
with which Alexander set out upon his expedition. Before he departed 
he distributed most of the crown property among his friends, and when 
Perdiccas asked him what he had reserved for himself, he replied, " My 
hopes." 

§ 7. A march of sixteen days brought Alexander to Sestos, where a 
large fleet and a number of transports had been collected for the embar 



B.C. 334. j BATTLE OF THE GRANICtJS. 496' 

kation of his army. Alexander steered with his own hand the vessel 
in which he sailed towards the very spot where the Achaeans were said to 
have landed when proceeding to the Trojan war. When half the passage 
had been completed, he propitiated Poseidon and the Nereids with the 
sacrifice of a bull and with libations from a golden goblet ; and as his 
trireme neared the shore, he hurled his spear towards the land, by way of 
claiming possession of Asia. He was, as we have said, a great admirer of 
Homer, a copy of whose works he always carried with him ; and 
on landing on the Asiatic coast, he made it his first business to visit the 
plain of Troy. A temple of Athena still existed there, and the very altar 
was pointed out to him at which Neoptolemus was said to have slain 
Priam. Alexander then proceeded to Sigeum, where he crowned with a 
garland the pillar said to mark the tumulus of his mythical ancestor, 
Achilles, and, according to custom, ran round it naked with his friends, 
whilst Hephsestion paid similar honors to the tomb of Patroclus. 

§ 8. Alexander then rejoined his army at Arisbe, near Abydos, and 
marched northwards along the coast of the Propontis. The satraps of 
Lydia and Ionia, together with other Persian generals, were encamped 
near Zelea, a town on the Granicus, with a force of twenty thousand 
Greek mercenaries, and about an equal number of native cavalry, with 
which they prepared to dispute the passage of the river. A Rhodian, 
named Memnon, had the chief command. The veteran general Parmenio 
advised Alexander to delay the attack till the following morning; to 
which he replied, that it would be a bad omen at the beginning of his ex- 
pedition, if, after passing the Hellespont, he should be stopped by a paltry 
stream. He then directed his cavalry to cross the river, and followed 
himself at the head of the phalanx. The passage, however, was by no 
means easy. The stream was in many parts so deep as to be hardly 
fordable, and the opposite bank was steep and rugged. The cavalry had 
great difficulty in maintaining their ground till Alexander came up to 
their relief He immediately charged into the thickest of the fray, and 
exposed himself so much, that his life was often in imminent danger, and 
on one occasion was only saved by the interposition of his friend Cleitus. 
Having routed the Persians, Alexander next attacked the Greek merce- 
naries, two thousand of whom were made prisoners, and the rest nearly aU 
cut to pieces. In this engagement Alexander killed two Persian officers 
vvith his own hand. After the battle he visited the wounded, and granted 
immunity from all taxation to the families of the slain. He also sent 
three hundred suits of Persian armor to Athens, to be dedicated to Athena 
in the Acropolis ; a proceeding by which he hoped, perhaps, furtlier to 
identify his cause as the common cause of Hellas against the barbarians, 
as well as to conciliate the Athenians, from whose genius he wished to 
receive an adequate memorial of his exploits. 

§ 9. Alexander now marched southwards towards Sardis, which sur- 



496 . HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV. 

rendered before he came within sight of its walls. Having left a garrison 
in that city, he arrived after a four days' march before Ephesus, which 
likewise capitulated on his approach. Magnesia, Tralles, and Miletus 
next fell into his hands, the last after a short siege. Halicarnassus made 
more resistance. It was defended by Ephialtes, an Athenian exile, sup- 
ported by Memnon, whose head-quarters were now in the island of Cos. 
It was necessary that the city should be regularly approaclied ; but at 
length Memnon, finding it no longer tenable, set fire to it in the liight^ and 
crossed over to Cos. Alexander- caused it to be razed to the ground, and 
leaving a small force to reduce the garrison, which had taken refuge in the 
citadels and forts, pursued his march along the southern coast of Asia 
Minor, with a view of seizing those towns wliicli miglu afford shelter to a 
Persian fleet. The winter was now approarhing, and Alexander sent a 
considerable part of his army under Parmenio into winter-quarters at 
Sardis. He also sent back to Macedonia such officers and soldiers as had 
been recently married, on condition that they should return in the spring 
with what reinforcements they could raise ; and with the same view he 
despatched an officer to recruit in the Peloponnesus. Meanwhile he 
himself with a chosen body proceeded along the coasts of Lycia and 
Pamphylia, having instructed Parmenio to rejoin him in Phrygia in the 
spring, with the main body. After he had crossed the Xanthus, most of 
the Lycian towns tendered their submission, and Phaselis presented him 
with a golden crown. On the borders of Lycia and Pamphylia, Mount 
Climax, a branch of the Taurus range, runs abruptly into the sea, leaving 
only a narrow passage at its foot, which is frequently overflowed. This 
was the case at the time of Alexander's approach. He therefore sent his 
main body by a long and difficult road across the mountains to Perge ; 
but he himself, who loved danger for its own sake, proceeded with a 
chosen band along the shore, wading through water that was breast-high 
for nearly a whole day. From Perge he advanced against Aspendus and 
Side, which he reduced ; and then, forcing his way northwards through 
the barbarous tribes which inhabited the mountains of Pisidia, he en- 
camped in the neighborhood of Gordium in Phrygia. Here he was 
rejoined by Parmenio and by the new levies from Greece. Gordium had 
been the capital of the early Phrygian kings, and in it was preserved 
with superstitious veneration the chariot or wagon in which the cele- 
brated Midas, the son of Gordius, together with his parents, had entered 
the town, and in conformity with an oracle had been elevated to the 
monarchy. An ancient prophecy promised the sovereignty of Asia to 
him who should untie the knot of bark which fastened the yoke of the 
wagon to the pole. Alexander repaired to the Acropolis, where the 
wagon was preserved, to attempt this adventure. Whether he undid the 
knot by drawing out a peg, or cut it through with his sword, is a matter of 
doubt ; but that he had fulfilled the prediction was placed beyond d'lspute 
that very night by a great storm of thunder and lightning. 



B. C 333.] BATTLE OF TSSUS. 497 

§ 10. In the spring of 333, Alexander pursued his march eastwards, 
and on arriving at Ancyra received the submission of the Paphlagonians. 
He then advanced through Cappadocia without resistance ; and forcing his 
way through the passes of Mount Taurus (the Pyl(B CllicicB), he descended 
into the plains of Cilicia. Hence he pushed on rapidly to Tarsus, which 
he found abandoned by the enemy. Whilst still heated with the march, 
Alexander plunged into the clear but cold stream of the Cydnus, which 
runs by the town. The result was a fever, which soon became so violent 
as to threaten his life. An Acarnanian physician, named Philip, who 
accompanied him, prescribed a remedy ; but at the same time Alexander 
received a letter informing liim that Philip had been bribed by Darius, the 
Persian king, to poison him. He had, however, too much confidence 
in the trusty Philip to beheve the accusation, and handed him the letter 
whilst he drank the draught. Either the medicine or Alexander's youth- 
ful constitution at length triumphed over the disorder. After remain- 
ing some time at Tarsus, he continued his march along the coast to 
Mallus, where he first received certain tidings of the great Persian army, 
commanded by Darius in person. It is said to have consisted of six 
hundred thousand fighting men, besides all that train of attendants which 
usually accompanied the march of a Persian monarch. This immense 
force was encamped on the plains of Sochi, where Amyntas, a Greek 
renegade, advised Dainus to await the approach of Alexander. But 
Darius, impatient of delay, and full of vainglorious confidence in the 
number of his forces, rejected this advice, and resolved to cross the moun- 
tains in quest of his foe. Alexander had mean time passed through Issus ; 
had secured the whole country from that place to the maritime pass called 
the Gates of Syria and Cilicia, and had pushed forwards to Myriandrus, 
where he was detained by a great storm of wind and rain. Meanwhile 
Darius had crossed Mount Am anus, more to the north, at a pass called 
the Amanic Gates, and had thus got into Alexander's rear ; who heard 
with joy that the Persians were moving along the coast to overtake him. 
By this movement, however, Issus had fallen into the hands of the 
Persians. Alexander now retraced his steps to meet Darius, whom he 
found encamped on the right bank of the little river Pinarus. The Per- 
sian monarch could hardly have been caught in a more unfavorable posi- 
tion, since the narrow and rugged plain between Mount Amanus and the 
sea afforded no scope for the evolutions of large bodies, and thus entirely 
deprived hira of the advantage of his numerical superiority. Alexander 
reoccupied the pass between Syria and Cilicia at midnight, and at day- 
break began to descend into the plain of the Pinarus, ordering his troops 
to deploy into line as the ground expanded, and thus to arrive in battle 
array before the Persians. Darius had thrown thirty thousand cavalry 
and twenty thousand infantry across the river, to check the advance of the 
Macedonians ; whilst on the right bank were drawn up his choicest Per- 
63 



498 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV 

Bian troops to the number of sixty thousand, together with thirty thousand 
Greek mercenaries, who formed the centre, and on whom he chiefly 
relied. These, it appears, were all that the breadth of the plain allowed 
to be drawn up in line. The remainder of the vast host were posted 
in separate bodies in the farther parts of the plain, and were unable to 
take any share in the combat. Darius took his station in the centre of 
the line, in a magnificent state chariot. The banks of the Pinarus were in 
many parts steep, and where they were level Darius had caused them to 
be intrenched. As Alexander advanced, the Persian cavalry which had 
been thrown across the river were recalled; but the twenty thousand 
infantry had been driven into the mountains, where Alexander held them 
in check with a small body of horse. The left wing of the Macedonians, 
under the command of Parmenio, was ordered to keep near the sea, to pre- 
vent being outflanked. The right wing was led by Alexander in person, 
who at first advanced slowly ; but when he came within shot of the Per- 
sian arrows he gave the order to charge, ■ rushed impetuously into the 
water, and was soon engaged in close combat with the Persians. The 
latter were immediately routed ; but the impetuosity of the charge had 
disarranged the compact order of the Macedonian phalanx, and the Greek 
mercenaries took advantage of this circumstance to attack them. This 
manoeuvre, however, was defeated by Alexander, who, after routing the 
Persians, wheeled and took the Greeks in flank. But what chiefly 
decided the fortune of the day was the timidity of Darius himself, who, on 
beholding the defeat of his left wing, immediately took to flight. His ex- 
ample was followed by his whole army ; and even the Persian cavalry, 
which had crossed the river, and was engaging the Macedonian left with 
great bravery, was compelled to follow the example. One hundred 
thousand Persians are said to have been left upon the field. On reaching 
the hills Darius threw aside his royal robes, his bow and shield, and, 
mounting a fleet courser, was soon out of reach of pursuit. The. Persian 
camp became the spoil of the Macedonians ; but the tent of Darius, to- 
gether with his chariot, robes, and arms, was reserved for Alexander 
himself. It was now that the Macedonian king first had ocular proof of 
the nature of Eastern royalty. One compartment of the tent of Darius 
had been fitted up as a bath, which steamed with the richest odors : 
whilst another presented a magnificent pavilion, containing a table richly 
spread for the banquet of Darius. But from an adjoining tent issued the 
wail of female voices, where Sisygambis, the mother, and Statira, the wife 
of Darius, were lamenting the supposed death of the Persian monarch. 
Alexander sent to assure them of his safety, and ordered them to be 
treated with the most delicate and respectful attention. 

§ 11. Such was the memorable battle of Issus, fought in November, 
B. C. 333. A large treasure, which Parmenio was sent forward with a 
detachment to seize, fell into the hands of the Macedonians at Damascus. 



B. C. 333.] SIEGE OF TYRE. 499 

Another favorable result of the victory was that it suppressed some at- 
tempts at revolt from the Macedonian power, which, with the support of 
Persia, had been manifested in Greece. But in order to put a complete 
stop to all such intrigues, which chiefly depended on the assistance of a 
Persian fleet, Alexander resolved to seize Phoenicia and Egypt, and thus 
to strike at the root of the Persian maritime power. 

Meanwhile, Darius, attended by a body of only four thousand fugitives, 
had crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus. Before he had set out from 
Babylon, the whole forces of the empire had been summoned ; but he had 
not thought it worth while to wait for what he deemed a merely useless 
encumbrance ; and the more distant levies, which comprised some of the 
best troops of the empire, were still hastening towards Babylon, In a 
short time, therefore, he would be at the head of a still more numerous 
host than that which had fought at Issus ; yet he thought it safer to open 
negotiations with Alexander than to trust to the chance of arms. With 
this view he sent a letter to Alexander, who was now at Marathus in 
Phoenicia, proposing to become his friend and ally; but Alexander re- 
jected all his overtures, and told him that he must in future be addressed, 
not in the language of an equal, but of a subject. 

As Alexander advanced southwards, all the towns of Phoenicia hastened 
to open their gates ; the inhabitants of Sidon even hailed him as their de- 
liverer. Tyre, also, sent to tender her submission ; but coupled with reser- 
vations by no means acceptable to a youthful conqueror in the full tide 
of success. Alexander affected to receive their offer, which was accompa- 
nied with a present of a golden crown and provisions for his army, as an 
unconditional surrender, and told them that he would visit their city and 
offer sacrifices to Melcart, a Tyrian deity, who was considered as identical 
with the Grecian Hercules. This brought the matter to an issue. The 
Tyrians now informed him that they could not admit any foreigners within 
their walls, and that, if he wished to sacrifice to Melcart, he would find 
another and more ancient shrine in Old Tyre, on the mainland. Alexan- 
der indignantly dismissed the Tyrian ambassadors, and announced his in- 
tention of laying siege to their city. The Tyrians probably deemed it 
impregnable. It was by nature a place of great strength, and had been 
rendered still stronger by art. The island on which it stood was half a 
mile distant from the mainland ; and though the channel was shallow near 
the coast, it deepened to three fathoms near the island. The shores of 
the island were rocky and precipitous, and the walls rose from the cliffs to 
the height of one hundred and fifty feet in solid masonry. The city was 
abundantly supplied with fresh water ; was well furnished with arms and 
provisions ; possessed an intelligent and warlike population ; and though 
the greater part of the fleet was absent in the Persian service, it had in 
its two harbors a competent number of vessels of war. As Alexander 
possessed no ships, the only method by which he could approach the town 



500 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap XLIV. 

was by constructing a causeway, the materials for which were collected 
from the forests of Libanus and the ruins of Old Tyre. Through the 
shallow part of the water the work proceeded rapidly ; but as it approached 
the toAvn the difficulties increased, both from the greater depth of the water, 
and from the workmen being exposed to missiles from the town and from 
the Tyrian galleys. To obviate the latter inconvenience, Alexander caused 
two wooden towers, covered with hides, to be built at the head of the mole, 
which would serve both to protect the workmen, and to keep assailants 
at a distance by the missiles hurled from engines at the top of the towers. 
The Tyrians, however, contrived to burn these towers, by seizing the op- 
portunity of a favorable breeze to drive against them a vessel filled with 
dry wood, besmeared with pitch, and other combustible materials. The 
Macedonians being thus driven from the mole, the Tyrians came oflTin 
boats, and destroyed such parts of it as the flames had spared. But Alex- 
ander was so far from being discouraged by this mishap, that he began 
the work again on a larger scale. He also procured ships from Sidon 
and other places in order to protect it, and in a little time had collected a 
fleet of two hundred and fifty sail, which he exercised in nautical ma- 
noeuvres ; and thus forced the Tyrian galleys, which had previously mo- 
lested the progress of the work, to keep within their harbor. Aftei* over- 
coming many difiiculties, the mole was at length pushed to the foot of the 
walls, which were now assailed with engines of a novel description. The 
besieged on their side resorted to many ingenious methods of defence, 
among which was the discharging of heated sand on the besiegers, which, 
penetrating beneath the armor, occasioned great torment. But it now 
began to grow evident that the city must fall ; and as soon as Alexander 
had effected a practicable breach, he ordered a general assault both by 
land and sea. The breach aa'hs stormed under the immediate inspection of 
Alexander himself; and though the Tyrians made a desperate resistance, 
they were at length overpowered, when the city became one wide scene, 
of indiscriminate carnage and plunder. The siege had lasted seven months, 
and the Macedonians were so exasperated by the difficulties and dangers 
they had undergone, that they granted no quarter. Eight thousand of the 
citizens are said to have been massacred ; and the remainder, with the 
exception of the king and some of the principal men, who had taken ref- 
uge in the temple of Melcart, were sold into slavery, to the number of 
thirty thousand. Tyre was taken in the month of July, b. c. 332. 

Wliilst Alexander Avas engaged in the siege of Tyre, Darius made him 
further and more advantageous proposals. He now offered ten thousand 
talents as the ransom of his family, together with all the provinces west of 
the Euphrates, and his daughter Barsine in marriage, as the conditions of a 
peace. When these offers were submitted to the Council, Parmenio was 
not unnaturally struck with their magnificence, and observed, that, were he 
A-lexander, he would accept them. " And so would I," replied the kin^ 



B. C. 332.] FOUNDATION OF ALEXANDRIA. 501 

" were I Parmenio." Had Alexander's views been bounded by the po- 
litical advantage of Macedonia, he would doubtless have adopted the 
advice of his veteran general. But his ambition was wholly of a personal 
nature. He felt more pleasure in acquiring than in possessing ; and aa 
his prospects expanded with his progress, he was unwilling to accept what 
he considered as only an instalment of the vast empire which he was 
destined to attain. Darius, therefore, prepared himself for a desperate 
resistance. 

§ 12. After the fall of Tyre, Alexander marched with his army towards 
Egypt, whilst his fleet proceeded along the coast. Gaza, a strong forti-ess 
on the sea-shore, obstinately held out, and delayed his progress three or 
four months. According to a tradition preserved in Josephus, it was at 
this time that Alexander visited Jerusalem, and, struck with its pious 
priests and holy rites, endowed the city with extraordinary privileges, and 
the priesthood with ample gifts ; but this story does not appear in any 
other ancient author. After the capture of Gaza, Alexander met his fleet 
at Pelusium, and ordered it to sail up the Nile as far as Memphis, whither 
he himself marched with his army across the desert. Alexander conciliat- 
ed the affection of the Egyptians by the respect with which he treated 
their national superstitions, whilst the Persians by an opposite line of 
conduct had incurred their deadliest hatred. Alexander then sailed down 
the western branch of the Nile, and at its mouth traced the plan of the 
new city of Alexandria, which for many centuries continued to be not 
only the grand emporium of Europe, Africa, and India, but also the prin- 
cipal centre of intellectual life. Being now on the confines of Libya, Al- 
exander resolved to visit the celebrated oracle of Zeus Ammon, which 
lay in the bosom of the Libyan wilderness, and which was reported to 
have been consulted by his two heroic ancestors, Hercules and Perseus, 
As he marched towards the oasis in which it was situated, he was met 
by envoys from Cyrene, bringing with them magnificent presents, amongst 
which were five chariots and three hundred war-horses. After marching 
along the coast for about two hundred miles, Alexander struck to the 
southeast into the desert ; when a five days' journey over pathless sands 
and under a scorching sun brought him to the well-watered and richly- 
wooded valley, containing the renowned and ancient temple of Ammon. 
The conqueror was received by the priests with all the honors of sacred 
pomp. He consulted the oracle in secret, and is said never to have dis- 
closed the answer which he received ; though that it was an answer that 
contented him appeared from the magnificence of the offerings which he 
made to the god. Some say that Ammon saluted him as the son of Zeus. 

§ 13. Alexander returned to Phoenicia in the spring of 331. He then 
dii'ected his march through Samaria, and arrived at Thapsacus on the Eu- 
phrates about the end of August. After crossing the river, he struck to the 
northeast through a fertile and well-supplied country. On his march h^ 



502 



HISTOKY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV. 



was told that Darius was posted with an immense force on the left bank of 
the Tigris ; but on arriving at that river, he found nobody to dispute his 
passage. He then proceeded southwards along its banks, and after four 
days' march fell in with a few scjnadrons of the enemy's cavalry. From 
some of these who were made prisoners Alexander learned that Darius 
was encamped with his host on one of the extensive plains between the 
Tigris and the mountains of Kurdistan, near a village called Gausramela 
(the Camel's House). The town of Arbela, after which the battle that 
ensued is commonly named, lay at about twenty miles' distance, and there 
Darius had deposited his baggage and treasure. That monarch had been 
easily persuaded that his former defeat was owing solely to the nature of 
the ground ; and therefore he now selected a wide plain for an engage- 
ment, where there was abundant room for his multitudinous infantry, and 
for the evolutions of his horsemen and charioteers. Alexander, after giv- 
ing his army a few dnys' rest, set out to meet the enemy soon after mid 
night, in order that he might come up with them about daybreak. On 
ascending some sand-hills the whole array of the Persians suddenly burst 
upon the view of the Macedonians, at the distance of three or four miles. 
Darius, as usual, occupied the centre, surrounded by his body-guard and 
chosen troops. In fi-ont of the royal position were ranged the war-chariots 
and elephants, and on either side the Greek mercenaries, to the number, 
it is said, of fifty thousand. Alexander spent the first day in surveying 
the ground and preparing for the attack ; he also addressed his troops, 
pointing out to them that the prize of victory would not be a mere prov- 
ince, but the dominion of all Asia. Yet so great was the tranquillity with 
which he contemplated the result, that at daybreak on the following morn- 
ing, when the officers came to receive his final instructions, they found 
him in a deep slumber. His army, which consisted only of forty thousand 
foot and seven thousand horse, was drawn up in the order which he usu- 
ally observed, namely, with the phalanx in the centre in six divisions, and 
the Macedonian cavalry on the right, where Alexander himself took his 
station. And as there was great danger of being outflanked, he formed a 
second line in the rear, composed of some divisions of the phalanx and 
a number of light troops and cavalry, which were to act in any quarter 
threatened by the enemy. The Persians, fearful of being surprised, had 
stood under arms the whole night, so that the morning found them ex- 
hausted and dispirited. Some of them, however, fought with considerable 
bravery ; but when Alexander had succeeded in breaking their line by an 
impetuous charge, Darius mounted a fleet horse and took to flight, as at 
Issus, though the fortune of the day was yet far from having been decided. 
At length, however, the rout became general. Whilst daylight lasted, Al- 
exander pursued the flying enemy as far as the banks of the Lycus, or 
Greater Zab, where thousands of the Persians perished in the attempt to 
pass the river. After resting his men a few hours, Alexander continued 



B. C 331.] BATTLE OF ARBELA. 503 

the pursuit at midnight, in the hope of overtaking Darius at Arbela. . The 
Persian monai-ch, however, had continued his flight vi'ithout stopping; 
but tlie whole of the royal baggage and treasure was captured at Arbela. 

§ 14. Finding any further pursuit of Darius hopeless, Alexander now 
directed his march towards Babylon. At a little distance from the city 
the greater part of the population came out to meet him, headed by 
their priests and magistrates, tendering their submission, and bearing with 
them magnificent presents. Alexander then made his triumphant entry 
into Babylon, riding in a chariot at the head of his army. The streets 
were strewed with flowers, incense smoked on either hand on silver altars, 
and the priests celebrated hi^ entry with hymns. Nor was this the mere 
display of a compulsory obedience. Under the Persian sway the Chal- 
d«ean i-e]igion had been oppressed and persecuted ; the temple of Belus 
had hi'i'n destroyed and still lay in ruins; and both priests and people 
conse([Ur',iily rejoiced ;it the downfall of a dynasty from which they had 
sufFerei! o :nii, h wrong. Alexander, whose enlarged views on the subject 
of popular religion had probably been derived from Aristotle, observed 
here the same politic conduct which he had adopted in Egypt. He caused 
the ruined temples to be restored, and proposed to offer personally, but 
under the direction of the priests, a sacrifice to Belus. He then made 
aiTangements for the safety and government of the city. He appointed 
Mazaeus, the Persian officer who had been left in charge of it, satrap of, 
Babylon ; but he occupied the citadel with a garrison of one thousand 
Macedonians and other Greeks, whilst the collection of the revenues was 
also intrusted to a Greek named Asclepiodorus. Alexander contemplated 
making Babylon the capital of his future empire. His army M^as rewai-ded 
with a large donative from the Persian treasury ; and, after being allowed 
to indulge for some time in the luxury of Babylon, was again put in mo- 
tion, towards the middle of November, for Susa. It was there that the 
Persian treasures were chiefly accumulated, and Alexander had despatched 
Philoxenus to take possession of the city immediately after the battle of 
Arbela. It was surrendered without a blow by the satrap Abulites. The 
treasure found there amounted to forty thousand talents in gold and silver 
bullion, and nine thousand in gold Darics. But among all these riches 
the interest of the Greeks must have been excited in a lively manner by 
the discovery of the spoils carried off from Greece by Xerxes. Among 
them were the bronze statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, which Al- 
exander now sent back to Athens, and which were long afterwards pre- 
served in the Cerameicus. 

At Susa Alexander received reinforcements of about fifteen thousand 
men from Greece. Amyntas, who conducted them, brought tidings of dis- 
turbances in Greece, fomented by Sparta ; and to assist in quelling them 
Alexander transmitted a considerable sum to the regent Antipater. He 
then directed his march southeastwards towards Persepolis. His road 



504 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLIV, 

lay through the mountainous territory of the Uxians, who refused him a 
passage unless he paid the usual tribute which they were in the habit of 
extorting even from the Persian kings. But Alexander routed them with 
great slaughter. The difficult mountain defile called the " Persian Gates," 
forming the entrance into Persis, still remained .40 be passed, which was 
defended by Ariobarzanes, the satrap of that district, with forty thousand 
foot and seven hundred horse. Ariobarzanes had also built a wall across 
the pass ; but Alexander turned the position by ascending the heights with 
part of his army, whilst the remainder stormed and carried the wall ; and 
the Persians were nearly all cut to pieces. He then advanced rapidly to 
Persepolis, whose magnificent ruins still attest its ancient splendor. It 
was the real capital of the Persian kings, though they generally resided at 
Susa during the winter, and at Ecbatana in summer. The treasure found 
there exceeded that both of Babylon and Susa, and is said to have amounted 
to one hundred and twenty thousand talents, or nearly thirty million pounds 
sterling.* It was here that Alexander is related to have committed an 
act of senseless folly, by firing with his own hand the ancient and mag- 
nificent palace of the Persian kings ; of which the most charitable version 
is that he committed the act when heated with wine at the instigation of 
Thais, an Athenian courtesan. By some writers, however, the story is 
altogether disbelieved, and the real destruction of Persepolis referred to 
the Mohammedan epoch. Whilst at Persepolis, Alexander visited the 
tomb of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, which was situated 
at a little distance, at a city called Pasargadse. 

§ 15. Thus, in between three and four years after crossing the Helle- 
spont, Alexander had established himself on the Persian throne. But Da- 
rius was not yet in his power. After the battle of Arbela, that monarch 
had fled to Ecbatana, the ancient capital of Media, where he seemed dis- 
posed to watch the turn of events, and whence, if he should be again threat- 
ened, he meditated flying farther north across the Oxus. It was not tiU 
about four months after the battle of Arbela, and consequently early in 
330, that Alexander quitted Persepolis to resume the pursuit of Darius. 
On approaching Ecbatana, he learned that the Persian monarch had al- 
ready fled with the little army which still adhered to him. On arriving 
at that place, Alexander permitted the troops of the allies to return home 
if they wished, as the main object of the expedition had been accomplished ; 
but many volunteered to remain with him, and the rest were dismissed 
with a handsome share of booty, in addition to their pay. The treasures 
which had been conveyed from Persepolis were lodged in the citadel of 
Ecbatana, under the guard of six thousand Macedonians, besides cavalry 
and light troops. Alexander, with his main body, then pursued Dariua 
through Media by forced marches, and reached Rhagag, a distance of three 

* Aboutf 125,000,000. — Ed. 



B. C. 330.] DEATH OF DARIUS. 505 

hundred miles from Ecbatana, in eleven days. Such was the rapiJity of 
the march, that many men and horses died of fatigue. At Rhagce he 
heard that Darius had already passed the defile called the " Caspian Gates," 
leading into the Bactrian provinces ; and, as that pass was fifty miles dis- 
tant, urgent pursuit was evidently useless. He therefore allowed his 
troops five days' rest, and then resumed his march. Soon after passing 
the Gates he learned that Darius had been seized and loaded with chains 
by his own satrap, Bessus, who entertained the design of establishing him- 
self in Bactria as an independent sovereign. This intelligence stimulated 
Alexander to make still further haste with part of his cavalry and a chosen 
body of foot. On the fourth day he succeeded in overtaking the fugitives 
with his cavalry, having been obliged to leave the infantry behind, with 
du'ections to follow more at leisure. The enemy, who did not know his 
real strength, were struck with consternation at his appearance, and fled 
precipitately. Bessus and his adherents now endeavored to persuade 
Darius to fly with them, and provided a fleet horse for that purpose. But 
the Persian monarch, who had already experienced the generosity of Al- 
exander in the treatment of his captive family, preferred to fall into liis 
hands, whereupon the conspirators mortally wounded him in the chariot 
in which they kept him confined, and then took to flight. Darius expired 
before Alexander could come up, who threw his own cloak over the body. 
He then ordered him to be magnificently buried in the tomb of his ances- 
tors, and provided for the fitting education of his children. 

§ 16. Alexander next invaded Hyrcania, a province of the Persian em- 
pire, on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and took possession of 
Zadracarta, the chief town in the country. From thence he undertook 
an expedition against the Mardians, a warlike tribe in the western part 
of Hyrcania, who, thinking themselves secure amidst their forests and 
mountains, had refused to make their submission. After chastising the 
Mardians, Alexander quitted Zadracarta, and pursued his march eastwards 
through the province of Aria. Near Artacoana, the capital of Aria, he 
founded a city on the banks of the river Arius, called after him (Alex- 
andria Ariorum), and which, under the name of Herat, is still one of the 
chief cities in Central Asia. Hence he proceeded southwards to Proph- 
thasia, the capital of Drangiana, where his stay was signalized by a sup- 
posed conspiracy against his life, formed by Philotas, the son of Parmenio. 
Alexander had long entertained suspicions of Philotas. "Whilst still in 
Egypt he had discovered that Philotas had spoken disparagingly of his 
exploits, and had boasted that, without the aid of his father and himself, 
Alexander would never have been able to achieve his conquests. He had 
also ridiculed the oracle respecting Alexander's supernatural bii-th, and 
had more recently opposed the inclination which that monarch now began 
to display to assume all the pomp and state of a Persian king. But the 
immediate subject of accusation against him was, that he had not revealed 
64 



506 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV 

a conspiracy which was reported to be forming against Alexander's 
life, and which he had deemed too contemptible to notice. He was 
consequently suspected of being implicated in it; and on being put to 
the torture, he not only confessed his own guilt in his agonies, but also 
implicated his father. Philotas was executed, and an order was sent to 
Ecbatana, where Parmenio then was, directing that veteran general 
to be put to death. A letter, purporting to be from his son, was handed to 
him ; and whilst the old man was engaged in reading it, Polydamas, his 
intimate friend, together with some others of Alexander's principal officers, 
fell upon and slew him. His head was carried to Alexander. Hepha^stion, 
who had been active in exciting the king's suspicion against Philotas, was 
rewarded with a share of the command vacated by his death ; but the 
horse-guards were now divided into two regiments, one of which was 
given to Hephaestion and the other to Cleitus. 

§ 17. Late in the year 330, Alexander directed his march southwards, to 
the banks of the Etymandrus (the Helmund), where, he remained sixty 
days. Hence he penetrated into Arachosia, and founded there another 
Alexandria, which is supposed to be the modern city of Candahar. He 
then crossed the lofty mountains of Paropamisus, called Caucasus by the 
Greeks (now Hindoo-Koosh), which were covered with deep snow, and 
so barren that they did not even afford firewood for his army. At the 
foot of one of the passes of these mountains Alexander founded another 
city called Alexandria ad Caucasum, situated probably about fifty miles 
northwest of Cabul. 

Alexander now entered Bactria ; but Bessus did not wait his approach, 
and fled across the Oxus into Sogdiana. Early in the summer of 329, 
Alexander followed him across the Oxus ; and shortly afterwards Bessus 
was betrayed by two of his own officers into the hands of Alexander. 
Bessus was carried to Zariaspa, the capital of Bactria, where he was 
brought before a Persian court, and put to death in a cruel and barbarous 
manner. 

Alexander next took possession of Maracanda (now Samarcand), the 
capital of Sogdiana, from whence he advanced to the river Jaxartes (aSzV), 
which he designed to make the boundary of his empire against the Scy- 
thians. On the banks of that river he founded the city of Alexandria 
Eschate (the last or farthest), probably the modern Khojend. After 
crossing the river and defeating the Scythians, who menaced him on the 
opposite bank, he returned into winter-quarters at Zariaspa. 

Sogdiana, however, was not yet subdued, and accordingly, in the 
following year, 328, Alexander again crossed the Oxus. He divided his 
army into five bodies, ordering them to scour the country in difierent 
directions. With the troops under his own command he marched against 
the fortress called the Sogdian Rock, seated on an isolated hill, so 
precipitous as to be deemed inaccessible, and so well supplied with 



B. C. 328.] MURDER OF CLEITUS. 507 

provisions as to defy a blockade. The summons to surrender was treated 
with derision bj the commander, who inquired whether the Macedonians 
had wings? But a small body of Macedonians having succeeded in 
scaling some heights which overhung the fortress, the garrison became so 
alarmed that they immediately surrendered. To this place a Bactrian, 
named Oxyartes, an adherent of Bessus, had sent his daughters for safety. 
One of them, named Roxana, was of surpassing beauty, and Alexander 
made her the partner of his throne. 

§ 18. Alexander now returned to Maracanda, where he was joined by 
the other divisions of his army, and while remaining at this place he 
appointed his friend Cleitus satrap of Bactria. On the eve of the parting 
of the two friends, Alexander celebrated a festival in honor of the 
Diosciiri, though the day was sacred to Dionysus. The banquet was 
attended by several parasites and literary flatterers, who magnified 
the praises of Alexander with extravagant and nauseous flattery. Cleitus, 
whom wine had released from all prudent reserve, sternly rebuked their 
fulsome adulation ; and, as the conversation turned on the comparative 
merits of the exploits of Alexander and his father Philip, he did not 
hesitate to prefer the exploits of the latter. He reminded Alexander ot 
Ills former services, and, stretching forth his hand, exclaimed, " It was this 
hand, Alexander, which saved your life at the battle of the Granicus ! " 
The king, who was also flushed with wine, was so enraged by these 
remarks, that he rushed at Cleitus with the intention of killing him on the 
spot, but he was held back by his friends, whilst Cleitus was at the same 
time hurried out of the room. Alexander, however, was no sooner 
released, than, snatching a spear, he sprang to the door, and meeting 
Cleitus, who was returning in equal fury to brave his anger, ran him 
through the body. But when the deed was done, he was seized with 
repentance and remorse. He flung himself on his couch and remained for 
three whole days in an agony of grief, refusing all sustenance, and calUng 
on the names of Cleitus and of his sister Lanice, who had been his nurse. 
It was not till his bodily strength began to fail through protracted absti- 
nence that he at last became more composed, and consented to listen to 
the consolations of his friends, and the words of the soothsayers ; Avho 
ascribed the murder of Cleitus to a temporary frenzy with which Dio- 
nysus had visited him as a punishment for neglecting the celebration 
of his festival. 

§ 19. After reducing the rest of the fortresses of Sogdiana, Alexander 
returned into Bactria in 327, and began to prepare for his projected 
expedition into India. Whilst he was thus employed, a plot was formed 
against his life by the royal pages, incited by Hermolaus, one of their 
number, who had been punished with stripes for anticipating the king 
during a hunting party in slaying a wild boar. Hermolaus and hia 
associates, among whom was Callisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle, were first 



508 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV. 

tortured, and then put to death. It seems certain that a conspiracy 
existed ; but no less certain, that the growing pride and haughtiness 
of Alexander were gradually alienating from him the hearts of his 
followers. 

Alexander did not leave Bactria till late in the spring. He crossed 
the Indus by a bridge of boats near Taxila, the present Attoch, where the 
river is about one thousand feet broad, and very deep. He is said to 
have entered India at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand foot 
and fifteen thousand horse, the greater part of whom must necessarily 
have been Asiatics. He now found himself in the district at present 
called the Penj-ab (or the Five Rivers). Taxiles, the sovereign of the 
disti-ict, at once surrendered Taxila, his capital, and joined the Mace- 
donian force with five thousand men. Hence Alexander proceeded with 
little resistance to the river Hydaspes (^Behut or Jelum). On the opposite 
bank, Porus,* a powerful Indian king, prepared to dispute his progress 
with a numerous and well-appointed force. • Alexander, however, by a 
skilful stratagem, conveyed his army safely across the river. An obsti- 
nate battle then ensued. In the array of Porus were many elephants, 
the sight and smell of which frightened the horses of Alexander's cav- 
alry. But these unwieldy animals ultimately proved as dangerous to the 
Indians as to the Greeks; for when driven into a narrow space, they 
became unmanageable, and created great confusion in the ranks of Porus. 
By a few vigorous charges the Indians were completely routed, with the loss 
of twelve tliousand slain and nine thousand prisoners. Among the latter 
was Porus himself, who was conducted into the presence of Alexander. 
The courage which he had displayed in the battle had excited the admira- 
tion of the Macedonian king. Mounted on an enormous elephant, he 
retreated leisurely when the day was lost, and long rejected every sum- 
mons to surrender; till at length, overcome by thirst and fatigue, he 
permitted himself to be taken. Even in this situation Porus still re- 
tained his majestic bearing, the effect of which was increased by the 
extraordinary height of his stature. On Alexander's inquiring how he 
wished to be treated, he replied, " Like a king. " " And have you no other 
request ? " asked Alexander. " No," answerd Porus ; " everything is 
comprehended in the word king." 'Struck by his magnanimity, Alexan- 
der not only restored him to his dominions, but also considerably enlarged 
them ; seeking by these means to retain him as an obedient and faithful 
vassal. 

Alexander rested a month on the banks of the Hydaspes, where he 
celebrated his victory by games and sacrifices, and founded two towns, 
one of which he named Nicaja, and the other Bucephala, in honor of his 



* Porus is probably a corruption of the Sanscrit word " Paurusha," which signifies 
fe "hero." 



B. C. 327.] INVASION OF INDIA. 509 

gallant charger Bucephalus, which is said to have died here. He then 
overran the whole of the Penj-ab, as far as the Hyphasis (^Gharra), ita 
southern boundary. The only resolute resistance he experienced was 
from the warlike tribe of the Cathtei, whose capital, Sangala, was proba- 
bly the modern Lahore. They were subdued, and their territory divided 
amongst the other Indian tribes. Upon reaching the Hyphasis, the army, 
worn out by fatigues and dangers, positively refused to proceed any 
farther; although Alexander passionately desired to attack a monarch still 
more powerful than Porus, whose dominions, he heard, lay beyond the 
river. All his attempts to induce his soldiers to proceed proving in- 
effectual, he prepared to submit with a good grace to an alternative which 
he perceived to be unavoidable. Pretending that the sacrifices were un- 
favorable for the passage of the Hyphasis, he gave the order for retreat ; 
having first erected on its banks twelve colossal altars to mark the boun- 
dary of his conquests in that direction. 

§ 20. When Alexander again arrived at his newly founded cities of 
Nicasa and Bucephala on the Hydaspes, he divided his army into three 
detachments. Two of these, under the command of Hephtestion and 
Craterus, were ordered to descend the Hydaspes on its opposite banks ; 
whilst he himself, at the head of eight thousand men, embarked on board 
a fleet of about two thousand vessels, which he had ordered to be pi'e- 
pared with the view of sailing down the Indus to its mouth. The 
ignorance which prevailed among the Macedonians respecting the geogra- 
phy of the region to be traversed, may be estimated from the circum- 
stance that Alexander at first considered the Indus to be a branch of the 
Nile. 

The army began to move in November, 327. The navigation lasted 
several months, but was accomplished without any serious opposition, 
except from the tribe of the MalH, who are conjectured to have occupied 
the site of the present Mooltan. At the storming of their town the life 
of Alexander was exposed to imminent danger. He was the first to scale 
the walls of the citadel, and was followed by four officers ; but before a 
fifth man could mount, the ladder broke, and Alexander was left exposed 
on the wall to the missiles of the enemy. From this situation there were 
only two methods of escape ; either by leaping down among his own army, 
or into the citadel among the enemy. Alexander chose the latter ; and, 
aUghting on his feet, placed his back to the wall, where he succeeded in 
keeping the enemy at bay, and slew two of their chiefs who had ventured 
within reach of his sword. But an arrow which pierced his corslet 
brought him to the ground, fainting with the loss of blood. Two of his 
followers who had jumped down after him now stood over and defended 
him ; till at length, more soldiers having scaled the walls, and opened one 
of the gates, sufficient numbers poured in not only to rescue their monarch, 
but to capture the citadel ; when every living being within the place was 



510 HISTORY OF GREECK. [ChAP. XLIV 

put to the sword. Alexander's life was long in great danger ; but when 
he was sufficiently recovered, he was again placed in his vessel, and 
dropped down the Hydraotes {Rave) to its confluence with the Acesines. 
Here his army was encamped ; and the soldiers testified by shouts and 
tears their joy at again beholding their commander. Hence Alexander 
pursued his course to the point where the four rivers, now united into one 
stream, the Acesines {Chenab), ]om i\\e Indus. At their confluence he 
ordered dock -yards to be constructed, and another Alexandria to be built. 
Hence he pursued his voyage to the Indian Ocean, all the towns on either 
bank of the river submitting at his approach. When he arrived at the 
mouth of the Indus, he explored its estuaries, and, accompanied by a few 
horsemen, skirted the margin of the Delta next the sea. Nearchus with 
the fleet was directed to explore the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and 
the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates, with the view of establishing a 
maritime communication between India and Persia. We have hitherto 
beheld Alexander only as a conqueror ; but these cares exhibit him in the 
more pleasing light of a geographical discoverer, and of a sovereign so- 
licitous for the substantial benefit of his subjects, 

§ 21. From this point Alexander proceeded with his army, in the au- 
tumn of 326, through the burning deserts of Gedrosia towards Persepolis ; 
marching himself on foot, and sharing the privations and fatigues of the 
meanest soldier. In these regions the very atmosphere seems to be com- 
posed of a fine dust, which on the slightest wind penetrates into the mouth 
and nose, whilst the soil affords no firm footing to the traveller. The march 
through this inhospitable region lasted sixty days, during which numbers 
of the soldiers perished from fatigue or disease. At length they emerged 
into the fertile province of Carmania. Whilst in this country, Alexander 
was rejoined by Nearchus, who had arrived with his fleet at Harmozia 
(Ormicz) ; but who subsequently prosecuted his voyage to the head of the 
Persian Gulf The main body of the army under Hephfestion was di- 
rected to march along the shores of the Gulf; whilst Alexander himself, 
with his horse-guards and light infantry, took a shorter route through Pa- 
sargada3 and Persepolis. During his stay in the latter city, he remedied 
the disorders which had been committed since he left it, and executed 
summary justice on the delinquent satraps who had oppressed the prov- 
inces of Persis. It was thus that he caused his empire to be respected, as 
much by the equity of his administration as by the irresistible force ot 
his arms. 

§ 22. From Persepolis Alexander pursued his march to Susa (b. c. 
325), where the soldiers were allowed to repose from their fatigues, and 
were amused with a series of brilliant festivities. It was here that he adopt- 
ed various measures with the view of consolidating his empire. One of the 
most important was to form the Greeks and Persians into one people by 
means of intermarriages. He himself celebrated his nuptials with Stateira, 



B. C .325.] MUTINY OF THE ARMY. 511 

the eldest daughter of Darius, and bestowed the hand of her sister, Dry- 
petis, on Hephaestion. Other marriages were made between Alexander's 
officers and Asiatic women, to the number, it is said, of about a hundred; 
whilst no fewer than ten thousand of the common soldiers followed , their 
example and took native wives. As another means of amalgamating the 
Europeans and Asiatics, he caused numbers of the latter to be admitted 
into the army, and to be armed and trained in the Macedonian fashion. 
But these innovations were regarded with a jealous eye by most of the 
Macedonian veterans ; and this feeling was increased by the conduct of 
Alexander himself, who assumed every day more and more of the state 
and manners of an Eastern despot. At first, indeed, the growing discon- 
tent was repressed by the large bounties distributed among the soldiers, 
and by the discharge of all their debts. But at length their long stifled 
dissatisfaction broke out into open mutiny and rebellion at a review which 
took place at Opis on the Tigris. Alexander here proposed to dismiss 
such Macedonians as were wounded or otherwise disabled ; but though 
they had clamored for their discharge whilst on the other side of the Indus, 
they now regarded this proposal as an insult, and . called out " that the 
king had better dismiss them all, — his father Ammon would fight his 
battles." But the mutiny was quelled by the decisive conduct of Alexan- 
der. Ho immediately ordered thirteen of the ringleaders to be seized and 
executed, and then, addressing the remainder, pointed out to them how, by 
his own and his father's exertions, they had been raised from the condi- 
tion of scattered herdsmen to be the masters of Greece and the lords of 
Asia ; and that whilst he had abandoned to them the richest and most val- 
uable fruits of his conquests, he had reserved nothing but the diadem for 
himself, as the mark of his superior labors and more imminent perils. 
He then secluded himself for two whole days, during which his Macedo- 
nian guard was exchanged for a Persian one, whilst nobles of the same 
nation were appointed to the most confidential posts about his person. 
Overcome by these marks of alienation on the part of their sovereign, the 
]Macedonians now supplicated with tears to be restored to favor. A sol- 
emn reconciliation was effected, and ten thousand veterans were dismissed 
to their homes under the conduct of Craterus. That general was also ap- 
pointed to the government of Macedonia in place of Antipater, who was 
ordered to repair to Asia with fresh reinforcements. 

§ 23. Soon after these occurrences, Alexander proceeded to Ecbatana, 
where during the autumn he solemnized the festival of Dionysus with ex- 
traordinary splendor. The best actors and musicians in Greece, to the 
number, it is said, of three thousand, were assembled for the occasion ; 
whilst the natives flocked from all quarters to the Median capital, to wit- 
ness what was to them a novel spectacle. But Alexander's enjoyment 
was suddenly converted into bitterness by the death of Heph.'estion, who 
was carried off by a fever. This event threw Alexander into a deep mel- 



512 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIV. 

ancholy, from which he never entirely recovered. The memory of He 
phfestion was honored by extravagant marks of public mourning, and his 
body was conveyed to Babylon, to be there interred with the utmost mag- 
nificence. His name was still retained as commander of a division of the 
cavalry ; and the officer who actually discharged the duties of the post 
was only regarded as his lieuteiiant. 

Alexander entered Babylon in the spring of 324, notwitlistanding the 
warnings of the priests of Belus, who predicted some serious evil to him 
if he entered the city at that time. Babylon was now to witness ilie con- 
summation of his triumphs and of his life. As in the last scene of some 
well-ordered drama, all the results and tokens of his great achievements 
seemed to be collected there to do honor to his final exit. Ambassadors 
from all parts of Greece, from Libya, Italy, and probably from still more 
distant regions, were waiting to salute him, and to do homage to him as 
the conqueror of Asia ; the fleet under Nearchus had arrived, after its long 
and enterprising voyage, and had been augmented by other vessels con- 
structed in Phoenicia, and thence brought overland to Thapsacus, and 
down the river to Babylon ; whilst for the reception of this navy, which 
seemed to turn the inland capital of his empire into a port, a magnificent 
harbor was in process of construction. A more melancholy, and, it may be 
added, a more useless monument of his greatness, was the funeral pile 
now rising for Hepheestion, which was constructed with such unparalleled 
splendor, that it is said to have cost ten thousand talents. The mind of 
Alexander was still occupied with plans of conquest and ambition ; his 
next design was the subjugation of Arabia ; which, however, was to be 
only the stepping stone to the conquest of the whole known world. He 
despatched tliree expeditions to survey the coast of Arabia ; ordered a 
fleet to be built to explore the Caspian Sea ; and engaged himself in sur- 
veying the course of the Euphrates, and in devising improvements of its 
navigation. The period for commencing the Arabian campaign had al- 
ready arrived ; solemn sacrifices were ofiered up for its success, and grand 
banquets were given previous to departure. At these carousals Alexan- 
der drank deep ; and at the termination of the one given by his favorite, 
Medius, he was seized with unequivocal symptoms of fever. For some 
days, however, he neglected the disorder, and continued to occupy himself 
with the necessary preparations for the march. But in eleven days the 
malady had gained a fatal strength, and terminated his life on the 28th of 
June, B. c. 323, at the early age of thirty-two. "Whilst he lay speechless 
on his death-bed his favorite troops were admitted to see him ; but he 
could offer them no other token of recognition than by stretching out his 
hand. 

§ 24. Few of the great characters of history have been so differently 
judged as Alexander. Of the magnitude of his exploits, indeed, and of 
the justice with which, according to the usual sentiments of mankind, they 



B. C. 323.] CHARACTER OF ALEXANDER. 513 

confer upon him tlie title of " Great," there can be but one opinion : it is ^ 
his motives for undertaking them that have been called in question. An 
eminent writer * brands him as an " adventurer " ; an epithet which, to a 
certain extent, must be allowed to be true, but which is not more true of 
him than of most other conquerors on a large scale. His military renown, 
however, consists more in the seemingly extravagant boldness of his en- 
terprises, than in the real power of the foes whom he overcame. The 
resistance he met with was not greater than that which a European army 
experiences in the present day from one composed of Asiatics ; and the 
empire of the East was decided by the two battles of Issus and Arbela. 
His chief difficulties were the geographical difficulties of distance, climate, 
and the nature of the ground traversed. But this is no proof that he was 
incompetent to meet a foe more worthy of his military skill ; and his pro- 
ceedings in Greece before his departure show the reverse. 

His motives, it must be allowed, seem rather to have sprung from the 
love of personal glory and the excitement of conquest, than from any wish 
to benefit his subjects. The attention which he occasionally devoted to 
commerce, to the foundation of new cities, and to other matters of a simi- 
lar kind, form rather episodes in his history, than the real objects at which 
his aims were directed ; and it was not by his own prudence, but through 
the weariness of his army, that his career of conquest was at length ar- 
rested, which he wished to prosecute before he had consolidated what he 
had already won. Yet on the whole his achievements, though they un- 
doubtedly occasioned great partial misery, must be regarded as beneficial to 
the human race ; the families of which, if it were not for some such move- 
ments, would stagnate in solitary listlessness and poverty. By the con- 
quests of Alexander the two continents were put into closer communication 
with one another ; and both, but particularly Asia, were the gainers. The 
language, the arts, and the literature of Greece were introduced into the 
East ; and after the death of Alexander Greek kingdoms were formed in 
the western parts of Asia, which continued to exist for many generations. 

* Niebuhr. 




Bust of the Poet Menander. 
65 



514 



HISTOKT OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XLV. 




The Group of Niobe. From the collection in the Uffici Palace at Florence. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO THE BATTLE OV 

IPSU8. 



^ 1. Division of the Provinces after Alexander's Death. § 2. Retrospective View of Grecian 
Affairs. Eevolt of Agis. Demosthenes de Corona. § 3. Arrival of Harpalns at Athens. 
Accusation and Exile of Demosthenes. § 4. The Lamian War. Defeat of Antipater, 
and Siege of Lamia. § 5. Defeat and Death of Leonnatus. Battle of Crannon. End o) 
the Lamian War. § 6. Death of Demosthenes. § 7. Ambitious Projects of Perdiccas. His 
Invasionof Egypt, and Death. §8. Fresh Division of the Provinces at Triparadisus. Death 
of Antipater. Polysperchon becomes Regent, and conciliates the Grecian States. Death 
ofPhocion. § 9. War between Polysperchon and Cassander. Ill-success of Polysperchon. 
Cassander becomes Master of Macedonia, and puts Olympias to Death. § 10. Coalition 
against Antigonus. Peace concluded in b. c. 311. Murder of Roxana and her Son. § 11. 
Renewal of the War against Antigonus. Demetrius Poliorcetes expels the Macedonians 
from Athens. § 12. Demetrius Poliorcetes at Cyprus. Battle of Salamis. Attempt on 
Egypt. Siege of Rhodes. § 13. Battle of Ipsus, and Death of Antigonus. 

§ 1. The unexpected death of Alexander threatened to involve both 
his extensive dominions and his armj in inextricable confusion. On the 
day after his death a military council assembled to decide on the course 
to be pursued. Alexander on his death-bed is said to have given his sig- 
net-ring to Perdiccas, but he had left no legitimate heir to his throne, 
though his wife Roxana was pregnant. In the discussions which ensued 
in the council, Perdioias assumed a leading part; and after much debate, 
and a quarrel betwee i the cavalry and infantry, which at first threatened 
the most serious consequences, an arrangement was at length effected on 
the following basis : That Philip Arrhidaeus, a young man of weak intel- 
lect, the half-brother of Alexander (being the son of Philip by a Thessa- 



B. C. 323.] PAETITION OF THE EMPIRE. 515 

Uan woman named Philinna), should be declared king, reserving, however, 
to the child of Roxana, if a son should be born, a share in the sovereignty ; 
that the government of Macedonia and Greece should be divided between 
Antipater and Craterus ; that Ptolemy, who was reputed to be connected 
with the royal family, should preside over Egypt and the adjacent coun- 
tries ; that Antigonus should have Phrygia Proper, Lycia, and Pamphylia , 
that the Hellespontine Phrygia should be assigned to Leonnatus ; that 
Eumenes should have the satrapy of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, which 
countries, however, still remained to be subdued ; and that Thrace should 
be committed to Lysimachus. Perdiccas reserved for himself the chili- 
archy, or command of the horse-guards, the post before held by Hephaes- 
tion, in virtue of which he became the guardian of" Philip Arrhidasus, the 
nominal sovereign. It was not till some time after these arrangements 
had been completed, that the last rites were paid to Alexander's remains. 
They were conveyed to Alexandria, and deposited in a cemetery which 
afterwards became the burial-place of the Ptolemies. Nothing could ex- 
ceed the magnificence of the funeral car, which was adorned with orna- 
ments of massive gold, and so heavy, that more than a year was occupied 
in conveying it from Babylon to Syria, though drawn by eighty-four mulesL 
In due time Roxana was delivered of a son, to whom the name of Alex- 
ander was given, and who was declared the partner of Arrhideeus in the 
empire. Roxana had previously inveigled Stateira and her sister Drypetis 
to Babylon, where she caused them to be secretly assassinated. 

§ 2. It is now necessary to take a brief retrospective glance at the' 
affairs of Greece. Three years after Alexander had quitted Europe, the 
Spartans made a vigorous effort to throw off the Macedonian yoke. They 
were joined by most of the Peloponnesian states, but the Athenians kept 
aloof. In B. c. 331, the Spartans took up arms under the command of 
their king, Agis ; but though they met with some success at first, they 
were finally defeated with great slaughter by Antipater, near Megalopolis, 
Agis fell in the battle, and the chains of Greece were riveted more firmly 
than ever. This victory, and the successes of Alexander in tlie East, en- 
couraged the Macedonian party in Athens to take active measures against 
Demosthenes ; and ^schines trumped up an old charge against him which 
had lain dormant for several years. Soon after the battle of Chaeronea, 
Ctesiphon had proposed that Demosthenes should be presented with a 
golden crown in the theatre during the great Dionysiac festival, on account 
of the services he had conferred upon his country. For proposing this 
decree ^schines indicted Ctesiphon ; but though the latter was the nomi- 
nal defendant, it was Demosthenes who was really put upon his trial.* 



* By the Attic law, a citizen proposing a '^r]^i<T}ia or decree might be indicted for vio- 
lation of existing laws, by the process called jpo-^r] wapavoficdv ; provided the prosecutor 
entered his complaint before the decree had been adopted by the popular assembly, and so 



516 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLV 

The case was decided in 330 b. c, and has been immortahzed by the 
memorable and still extant speeches of ^schines "Against Ctesiphon," 
and of Demosthenes " On the Crown." -^schines, who did not obtain a 
fifth part of the votes, and consequently became himself liable to a penalty, 
was so chagrined at his defeat that he retired to Rhodes. 

§ 3. In B. c. 325, Harpalus arrived in Athens. Harpalus was a great 
favorite with Alexander, as he had embraced his side during his quarrel 
with his father, Philip. When Alexander, after the conquest of Persia 
and Media, determined to push on into the interior of Asia, in pui'suit of 
Darius, he left Harpalus at Ecbatana, with six thousand Macedonian 
troops, in charge of the royal treasures. From thence he removed to 
Babylon, and appears to have held the important satrapy of that province, 
as well as the administration of the treasury. It was here that, during 
the absence of Alexander in India, he gave himself up to the most extrava- 
gant luxury and profusion, squandering the treasures intrusted to him, at 
the same time that he alienated the people subject to his rule by his lust- 
ful excesses and extortions. He had probably thought that Alexander would 
never return from the remote regions of the East into which he had pene- 
trated ; but when he at length learnt that the king was on his march back 
to Susa, and had visited with unsparing rigor those of his officers who 
had been guilty of any excesses during his absence, he at once saw that 
his only resource was in flight. Collecting together all the treasures which 
he could, and assembling a body of six thousand mercenaries, he hastened 
to the coast of Asia, and from thence crossed over to Attica. He seems 
to have reckoned on a favorable reception at Athens, as during the time 
of his prosperity he had made the city a large present of corn, in return 
for which he had received the right of citizenship. At first, however, the 
Athenians refused to receive him ; but bribes administered to some of the 
principal orators induced them to alter their determination. Such a step 
was tantamount to an act of hostility against Macedonia itself ; and accord- 
ingly Antipater called upon the Athenians to deliver up Harpalus, and to 
bring to trial those who had accepted his bribes. The Athenians did not 
venture to disobey these demands. Harpalus was put into confinement, 
but succeeded in making his escape from prison. Demosthenes was 
among the orators who were brought to trial for corruption. He was de- 
clared to be guilty, and was condemned to pay a fine of fifty talents. Not 
being able to raise that sum, he was thrown into prison ; but he contrived 
to make his escape, and went into exile. There are, however, good 
grounds for doubting his guilt ; and it is more probable that he fell a vic- 

had become a law. If the charge was proved to be well founded, the proposer of the de*ree 
was liable to a penalty. Ctesiphon was prosecuted by jEschines on this process. The pro 
posal to crown Demosthenes is attacked on three principal points : — 1. Demosthenes ha4 
not yet settled the accounts of his office. 2. The proposed place was illegal. 8. His po 
litical course was unworthy of such a distinguished honor. — Ed. 



B. C 323.] THE LAMIAN WAR. 517 

tim to the implacable hatred of the Macedonian party. Upon quitting 
Athens, Demosthenes resided chiefly at JEgina or Troezen, in sight of hia 
native land, and whenever he looked towards her shores it was observed 
that he shed tears. 

§ 4. When the news of Alexander's death reached Athens, the anti- 
Macedonian party, which, since the exile of Demosthenes, was led by 
Hypereides, carried all before it. The people in a decree declared their 
determination to support the liberty of Greece ; a fleet of two hundred 
and forty triremes was ordered to be equipped ; all citizens under forty 
years of age were comitianded to enroll themselves for service ; and Leos- 
thenes was directed to levy an army of mercenaries. Envoys were de- 
spatched to all the Grecian states to announce the determination of Ath- 
ens, and to exhort them to struggle with her for their independence. This 
call was responded to in the Peloponnesus only by the smaller states, 
whilst Sparta, Arcadia, and Achaia kept aloof. In Northern Greece the 
confederacy was joined by most of the states except the Boeotians ; and 
Leosthenes was appointed commander-in-chief of the allied forces. 

Phocion, as usual, was opposed to this war, thinking the forces of 
Athens wholly inadequate to sustain it. Leosthenes scoffed at him, and 
asked him " what he had ever done for his country during the long time 
that he was general." " Do you reckon it nothing," answered Phocion, 
" that the Athenians are buried in the sepulchres of their forefathers ? " 
And when Leosthenes continued his pompous harangues, Phocion said, 
*' Young man, your speeches resemble cypress-trees, which are indeed large 
and lofty, but produce no fruit." " Tell us, then," interrupted Hypereides, 
" what will be the proper time for the Athenians to make war." Phocion 
answered, " Not till young men keep within the bounds of decorum, the 
rich contribute with liberality, and the orators desist from robbing the 
people." 

The allied army assembled in the neighborhood of Thermopylae. An- 
tipater now advanced from the north, and offered battle in the vale of the 
Spercheus ; but being deserted by his Thessalian cavalry, who went over 
to his opponents during the heat of the engagement, he was obliged to re- 
treat, and threw himself into Lamia, a strong fortress on the Malian Gulf. 
Leosthenes, desirous to finish the war at a blow, pressed the siege with 
the utmost vigor ; but his assaults were repulsed, and he was compelled to 
resort to the slower method of a blockade. From this town the contest 
between Antipater and the allied Gi'eeks has been called the Lamian 
War. 

§ 5. The novelty of a victory over the Macedonian arms was received 
with boundless exultation at Athens, and this feeling was raised to a still 
higher pitch by the arrival of an embassy from Antipater to sue for 
peace. Phocion was bantered unmercifully. He was asked whether he 
would not like to have done such great things as Leosthenes? "Cer- 



518 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLV 

tainly," said he ; " but I should not have advised the attempting of them.''^ 
And when messenger after messenger announced the successes of the 
Athenian arras, he exclaimed sarcastically, " When shall we have done 
conquering?" The Athenians were so elated with their good fortune, that 
they would listen to no terms but the unconditional surrender of Antipater. 
Meantime Demosthenes, though still an exile, exerted himself in various 
parts of the Peloponnesus in counteracting the evoys of Antipater. and in 
endeavoring to gain adherents to the cause of Athens and the allies. The 
Athenians, in return, invited Demosthenes back to his native country, and 
a ship was sent to convey him to Peii-a3us, where he was received with 
extraordinary honors. 

Meanwhile Leonnatus, governor of the Hellespontine Phrygia, had ap- 
peared on the theatre of war with an army of twenty thousand foot and 
twenty-five hundred horse. Leosthenes had been slain at Lamia in 
a sally of the besieged ; and Antiphilus, on whom the command of the 
allied army devolved, hastened to offer battle to Leonnatus before he 
could arrive at Lamia. The hostile armies met in one of the plains of 
Thessaly, where Leonnatus was killed and his troops defeated. Antipater, 
AS soon as the blockade of Lamia was raised, had pursued Antiphilus, and 
on the day after the battle he effected a junction with the beaten army of 
Leonnatus. 

Shortly afterwards, Antipater was still further reinforced by the arrival 
of Craterus with a considerable force from Asia ; and being now at the 
head of an army which outnumbered the forces of the allies, he marched 
against them, and gained a decisive victory over them near Crannon in 
Thessaly, on the 7th of August, b. c. 322. The allies were now com^ 
pelled to sue for peace ; but Antipater refused to treat with them except 
as separate states, foreseeing that by this means many would be detached 
from the confederacy. The result answered his expectations. One by 
one, the various states submitted, till at length all had laid down their 
arras. Athens, the original instigator of the insurrection, now lay at the 
mercy of the conqueror. As Antipater advanced, Phocion used all the 
influence which he possessed with the Macedonians in favor of his country- 
men ; but he could obtain no other terms than an unconditional surrender. 
On a second mission, Phocion received the final demands of Antipater; 
which were that the Athenians should deliver up a certain number of their 
orators, among whom were Demosthenes and Hypereides ; that their po- 
litical franchise should be limited by a property qualification ; that they 
should receive a Macedonian garrison in Munychia ; and that they should 
defray the expenses of the war. Such was the result of the Lamian War. 

§ 6. After the return of the envoys bringing the ultimatum of Antipater, 
the sycophant Demades procured a decree for the death of the denounced 
orators. Demosthenes and the other persons compromised made their 
escape from Athens before the Macedonian garrison arrived. -S^gina was 



B. C. 322.] DEATH OF DEMOSTHENES. 519 

their first place of refuge, but they soon parted in different directions 
Hypereides fled to the temple of Demeter at Herraione in PelopoHnesus, 
whilst Demosthenes took refuge in that of Poseidon in the isle of Calau- 
rea, near Troezen. But the satellites of Antipater, under the guidance of 
a Thurian named Archias, who had formerly been an actor, tore them 
from their sanctuaries. Hypereides was carried to Athens, and it is said 
that Antipater took the brutal and cowardly revenge of ordering his 
tongue to be cut out, and his remains to be thrown to the dogs. Demos- 
thenes contrived at least to escape the insults of the tyrannical conqueror. 
Archias at first endeavored to entice him from his sanctuaiy by the bland- 
est promises. But Demosthenes, forewarned, it is said, by a dream, fixing 
his eyes intently on fiim, exclaimed, " Your acting, Archias, never 
touched me formerly, nor do your promises now." And wlien Archias 
began to employ threats, " Good," said Demosthenes ; " now you speak as 
from the Macedonian tri[)od ; before you were only playing a part. But 
wait an-hile, and let me write ray last directions to my family." So, taking 
his writing materials, he put the reed into his mouth and bit it for some 
time, as was his custom when composing ; after which he covered his head 
with his garment and reclined against a pillar. The guards who accom- 
panied Archias, imagining this to be a mere trick, laughed, and called him 
coward, wliilst Archias began to renew his false persuasions. Demos- 
thenes, feeling the poison work, — for such it was that he had concealed in 
the reed, — now bade him lead on. " You may now," said he, " enact 
the part of Creon, and cast me out unburied ; but at least, gracious Po- 
seidon, I have not polluted thy temple by my death, which Antipater and 
his Macedonians would not have scrujjled at." But whilst he was endeav- 
oring to walk out, he fell down by the altar and expired. 

§ 7. The course of events now carries us back to the East. Perdiccas 
possessed more power than any of Alexander's generals, and was regarded 
as the regent of the empire. He had the custody of the infant Alexander, 
the son of Alexander the Great, and the weak Philip Arrliidaeus was a 
puppet in his hands. Perdiccas had at first courted the alliance of An- 
tipater, and had even married his daughter Nicsea. But when Olympias 
offered him the hand of her daughter Cleopatra, if he would assist her 
against Antipater, Perdiccas resolved to divorce Nicssea at the first con- 
venient opportunity, and esjjouse Cleopatra in her stead, believing that 
such an alliance with the royal family would pave his way to the Macedo- 
nian throne, to which he was now aspiring. His designs, however, were 
not unknown to Antigonus and Ptolemy ; and when he attempted to bring 
Antigonus to trial for some offence in the government of his satrapy, that 
general made his escape to Macedonia, where he revealed to Antipater 
the full extent of the ambitious schemes of Perdiccas, and thus at once in 
duced Antipater and Craterus to unite in a league with him and Ptolemy, 
and openly declare war against the regent. Thus assailed on all sides, 



520 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLV 

Perdiccas resolved to direct his arms in the first instance against Ptolemy. 
In the spring of B. c. 321 he accordingly set out on his march against 
Egypt, at the head of a formidable army, and accompanied by Philip Ar- 
rhidaeus, and Roxana and her infant son. He advanced without opposition 
as far as Pelusium, but he found the banks of the Nile strongly fortified 
and guarded by Ptolemy, and was repulsed in repeated attempts to force 
the passage of the river ; in the last of which, near Memphis, he lost great 
numbers of men, by the depth and rapidity of the current. Perdiccas had 
never been popular with the soldiery, and these disasters completely 
alienated their affections. A conspiracy was formed against him, and 
some of his chief officers murdef ed him in his tent. 

§ 8. The death of Perdiccas was followed by a fresh distribution of the 
provinces of the empire. At a meeting of the generals held at Tripara- 
disus in Syria, towards the end of the year 321 b. c, Antipater was de- 
clared regent, retaining the government of Macedonia and Greece ; Ptole- 
my was continued in the government of Egypt ; Seleucus received the 
satrapy of Babylon ; whilst Antigonus not only retained his old province 
but was rewarded with that of Susiana. 

Antipater did not long survive these events. He died in the year 318, 
at the advanced age of eighty, leaving Polysperchon, one of Alexander's 
oldest generals, regent ; much to the surprise and mortification of his son 
Cassander, who received only the secondary dignity of Chiliarch, or com- 
mander of the cavalry. Cassander was now bent on obtaining the regen- 
cy ; but seeing no hope of success in Macedonia, he went over to Asia to 
soHcit the assistance of Antigonus. 

Polysperchon, on his side, sought to conciliate the friendship of the Gre- 
cian states by proclaiming them all free and independent, and by abolish- 
ing the oligarchies which had been set up by Antipater. In order to 
enforce these measures, Polysperchon prepared to march into Greece, 
whilst his son Alexander was despatched beforehand with an army towards 
Athens, to compel the Macedonian garrison under the command of Nica- 
nor to evacuate Munychia. Nicanor, however, refused to move without 
orders from Cassander, whose general he declared himself to be. Phocion 
was supposed to be intriguing in favor of Nicanor, and, being accused of 
treason, fled to Alexander, now encamped before the walls of Athens. 
Alexander sent Phocion and the friends who accompanied him to his 
father, who was then in Phocis ; and at the same time an Athenian em- 
bassy arrived in Polysperchon's camp to accuse Phocion. A sort of mock 
trial ensued, the result of which was that Phocion was sent back to Athens 
in chains, to be tried by the Athenian people. The theatre, where his 
trial was to take place, was soon full to overflowing. Phocion was as- 
sailed on every side by the clamors of his enemies, which prevented his 
defence from being heard, and he was condemned to death by a show of 
hands. To the last Phocion maintained his calm and dignified, but some- 



B.C. 317.] WAR BETWEEN POLTSPERCHON AND CASSANDER. 521 

what contemptuous bearing. When some wretched man spat upon him 
as he passed to the prison, " Will no one," said he, " check this fellow's in- 
decency ? " To one who asked him whether he had any message to leave 
for his son Phocus, he answered, " Only that he bear no grudge against 
the Athenians." And when the hemlock which had been prepared was 
found insufficient for all the condemned, and the jailer would not furnish 
more unless he was paid for it, " Give the man his money," said Phocion 
to one of his friends, " since at Athens one cannot even die for nothing." 
He died in B. c. 317, at the age of eighty-five. The Athenians afterwards 
repented of their conduct towards Phocion. His bones, which had been 
east out on the frontiers of Megara, were subsequently brought back to 
Athens, and a bronze statue was erected to his memory. 

§ 9. Whilst Alexander was negotiating with Nicanor about the surren- 
der of Munychia, Cassander arrived in the Peirceus with a considerable 
army, with which Antigonus had supplied him ; and though Polysperchon 
himself soon came up with a large force, he found the fortifications of Pei- 
raeus too strong for him. Leaving, therefore, his sou to blockade the city, 
Polysperchon advanced with the greater part of his army into the Pelo- 
ponnesus. Here he laid siege to Megalopolis ; but that town was defend- 
ed with such extraordinary efforts, that Polysperchon was compelled to 
withdraw. His ill-success, as well as the destruction of his fleet by the 
fleet of Cassander, produced an unfavorable turn in the disposition of the 
Greek states towards Polysperchon, and Athens in particular abandoned 
his alliance for that of Cassander, who established an oligarchical govern- 
ment in the city under the presidency of Demetrius of Phalerus. 

At the same time Eurydice, the active and intriguing wife of Philip 
Arrhidaeus, conceived the project of throwing off the yoke of the regent, 
and concluded an alliance with Cassander, while she herself assembled an 
army with which she obtained for a time the complete possession of Mace- 
donia. But in the spring of 317, Polysperchon, having united his' forces 
with those of JEacides, king of Epeirus, invaded Macedonia, accompanied 
by Olympias. Eurydice met them with equal daring; but when the 
mother of Alexander appeared on the field, surrounded by a train in bac- 
chanalian style, the Macedonians at once declared in her favor, and Eury- 
dice, abandoned by her own troops, fled to Amphipolis, where she soon 
fell into the hands of Olympias, who put both her and her husband to 
death, with circumstances of the greatest cruelty. She next wreaked her 
vengeance on the family of Antipater, and on the adherents of Cassander. 
These events determined Cassander to proceed with all haste into Mace- 
donia. At his approach Olympias threw herself into Pydna, together with 
Roxana and her son. Cassander forthwith laid siege to this place ; and 
after a blockade of some months it surrendered, in the spring of 316. 
Olympias had stipulated that her life should be spared, but Cassander 
Boon afterwards caused her to be murdered. After the fall of Pydna all 
66 



522 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. XLV. 

Macedonia submitted to Cassander ; ' vho, after shutting up Roxana and 
her son in the citadel of Amphipolis, married Thessalonica, a half-sister of 
Alexander the Great, with the view of strengthening his pretensions to 
the throne. 

Shortly afterwards Cassander marched into Greece, and began the res- 
toration of Thebes (b. c. 315), in the twentieth year after its destruction 
by Alexander, a measure highly popular with the Greeks. 

§ 10. A new war now broke out in the East. Antigonus had become 
the most powerful of Alexander's successors. He had conquered Eume- 
nes, who had long defied his arms, and he now began to dispose of the 
provinces as he thought fit. His increasing power and ambitious projects 
led to a general coalition against him, consisting of Ptolemy, Seleucus, 
Cassander, and Lysimachus, the governor of Thrace. The war began 
in the year 315, and was carried on with great vehemence and alternate 
success in Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and Greece. After four years 
all parties became exhausted with the struggle, and peace was accordingly 
concluded in 311, on condition that the Greek cities should be free, that 
Cassander should retain his authority in Europe till Alexander came of 
age, that Ptolemy and Lysimachus should keep possession of Thrace and 
Egypt respectively, and that Antigonus should have the government of 
all Asia. The name of Seleucus does not occur in the treaty. 

This hollow peace, which had been merely patched up for the conven- 
ience of the parties concerned, was not of long duration. It seems to have 
been the immediate cause of another of those crimes which disgrace the 
history of Alexander's successors. Alexander, who had now attained the 
age of sixteen, was still shut up with his mother Roxana in Amphipolis ; 
and his partisans, with injudicious zeal, loudly expressed their wish that 
he should be released and placed upon the throne. In order to avert this 
event, Cassander contrived the secret murder both of the mother and the 
son. , 

§ 11. This abominable act, however, does not appear to have caused a 
breach of the peace. Ptolemy was the first to break it (b. c. 310), under 
the pretext that Antigonus, by keeping his garrisons in the Greek cities 
of Asia and the islands, had not respected that article of the treaty which 
guaranteed Grecian freedom. After the war had lasted three years, An- 
tigonus resolved to make a vigorous effort to wrest Greece from the hands 
of Cassander and Ptolemy, Avho held all the principal towns in it. Accord- 
ingly, in the summer of 307 B. c. he despatched his son Demetrius from 
Ephesus to Athens, with a fleet of two hundred and fifty sail, and five 
thousand talents in money. Demetrius, who afterwards obtained the sur- 
name of " Poliorcetes," or " Besieger of Cities," was a young man of ar- 
dent temperament and great abilities. Upon arriving at the Peiroeus, he 
immediately proclaimed the object of his expedition to be the liberation of 
Athens and the expulsion of the Macedonian garrison. Supported by the 



B. C. 306.] BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 523 

Macedonians, Demetrius the Phalerean bad now ruled Athens for a period 
of more than ten years. Of mean birth, Demetrius the Phalerean owed 
bis elevation entirely to bis talents and perseverance. His skill as an 
orator raised him to distinction among his countrymen ; and bis politics, 
which led him to embrace the party of Phocion, recommended him to Cas- 
sander and the Macedonians. He cultivated many branches of literature, 
and was at once an historian, a philosopher, and a poet; but none of his 
works have come down to us. During the first period of his administra- 
tion he appears to have governed wisely and equitably, to have improved 
the Athenian laws, and to have adorned the city with useful buildings.* 
But in spite of his pretensions to philosophy, the possession of uncontrolled 
power soon altered his character for the worse, and he became remarka- 
ble for luxury, ostentation, and sensuality. Hence he gradually lost the 
popularity which he had once enjoyed, and which had prompted the Athe- 
nians to raise to him no fewer than three hundred and sixty bronze 
statues, most of them equestrian. The Athenians heard with pleasure the 
proclamations of the son of Antigonus; his namesake, the Phalerean, was 
obliged to surrender the city to him, and to close his political career by 
retirmg to Thebes. The Macedonian garrison in Munychia offered a 
slight resistance, Avhich was soon overcome. Demetrius Poliorcetes then 
formally announced to the Athenian assembly the restoration of their an- 
cient constitution, and- promised them a large donative of corn and ship- 
timber. This munificence was repaid by the Athenians with the basest 
and most abject flattery. Both Demetrius and his father were deified, 
and two new tribes, those of Antigonias and Demetrias, were added to the 
existing ten which derived their names from the ancient heroes of Attica. 

§ 12. Demetrius Poliorcetes did not, however, remain long at Athens. 
Early in 306 b. c. he was recalled by his father, and, sailing to Cyprus, 
undertook the siege of Salamis. Ptolemy hastened to its relief with one 
hundred and forty vessels and ten thousand troops. The battle that en- 
sued was one of the most memorable in the annals of ancient naval war- 
fare, more particularly on account of the vast size of the vessels engaged. 
Ptolemy was completely defeated ; and so important was the victory 
deemed by Antigonus, that on the strength of it he assumed the title of 
king, which he also conferred upon his son. This example was followed 
by Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus. 

Encouraged by their success at Cyprus, Antigonus and Demetrius 
made an attempt upon Egypt, which, however, proved a disastrous failure. 
By way of revenge, Demetrius undertook an expedition against Rhodes, 
which had refused its aid in the attack upon Ptolemy. It was from the 

* A census which Demetrius took of the population of Attica, probably in 309 b. c, the 
year of his archonship, gave 21,000 freemen, 10,000 metics, or resident aliens, and the amaz- 
ing number of 400,000 slaves. The wives and families of the free population must of coursa 
be added. 



524 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ClIAP. XLV. 

memorable siege of Rhodes that Demetrius obtained his name of " Poli- 
orcetes." After in vain attempting to take the town from the sea-side, 
by means of floating batteries, from which stones of enormous weight were 
hurled from engines with incredible force against the walls, he determined 
to alter his plan and invest it on the land-side. With the assistance of 
Ei)iniachus, an Athenian engineer, he constructed a machine which, in 
anticipation of its effect, was called Helepolis, or " the city-taker." This 
was a square wooden tower, one hundred and fifty feet high, and divided 
into nine stories, filled with armed men, who discharged missiles through 
apertures in the sides. When armed and prepared for attack, it required 
the strength of two thousand three hundred men to set this enormous ma- 
chine in motion. But though this formidable engine was assisted by the 
operation of two battering-rams, each one hundred and fifty feet long and 
propelled by the labor of one thousand men, the Rhodians were so active 
in repairing the breaches made in their walls, that, after a year spent in 
the vain attempt to take the town, Demetrius was forced to retire and 
grant the Rhodians peace. 

§ 1 3. Whilst Demetrius was thus employed, Cassander had made great 
progress in reducing Greece. He had taken Corinth, and was besieging 
Athens, when Demetrius entered the EurTpus. Cassander immediately 
raised the siege, and was subsequently defeated in an action near Ther- 
mopylae. When Demetrius entered Athens, he was received as before 
with the most extravagant flatteries. He remained two or three years in 
Greece, during which his superiority over Cassander was decided, though 
no great battle was fought. 

In the spring of 301 b. c. he was recalled by his father Antigonus, who 
stood in need of his assistance against Lysimachus and Seleucus. In the 
course of the same year the struggle between Antigonus and his rivals 
was brought to a close by the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, in which An- 
tigonus was killed, and his army completely defeated. Antigonus had at- 
tained the age of eighty -one at the time of his death. Demetrius retreated 
with the remnant of the army to Ephesus, whence he sailed to Cyprus, 
and afterwards proposed to go to Athens ; but the Athenians, alienated by 
his ill-fortune at Ipsus, refused to receive him. Seleucus and Lysima- 
chus shared between them the possessions of Antigonus. Lysimachus 
seems to have had the greater part of Asia Minor, whilst the whole coun- 
try from the coast of Syria to the Euphrates, as well as a part of Phrygia 
and Cappadocia, fell to the share of Seleucus. The latter founded on the 
Orontes a new capital of his empire, which he named after his father An- 
tioch. The fall of Antigonus secured Cassander in the possession of 
Greece, though it does not appear that any formal treaty was entered into 
for that purpose. 



B, C. 296.] DEMETRIUS CAPTURES ATHENS. 525' 




Group of Dirce. From the Museum at Naples. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

FROM THE BATTLE OP IPSUS TO THE CONQUEST OF GREECE BY THH 

ROMANS. 

f 1. Proceedings of Demetrius Poliorcetes. He captures Athens. § 2. Obtains the Mace- 
donian Crown. His Flight and Death. § 3. Lysimachus reigns over Macedonia. Ha 
is defeated and slain by Seleucus. ^ 4. Seleucus assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus. 
Invasion of the Celts, and Death of Ptolemy Ceraunus. ^ 5. Antigonus Gonatas ascends 
the Macedonian Throne. Death of Pyrrhus of Epeirus. Chremonidean War. § 6. The 
Ach^an League. § 7. State of Sparta. Reforms of Agis and Cleomenes. The Cle- 
omenic War. § 8. The ^tolian League. § 9. The Social War. § 10. War between Philip 
and the Romans. §11. Philopoemen. §12. Second War between Philip and the Romans. 
Battle of Cynoscephalfe. § 13. Defeat of Antioclius, and Subjugation of the ^tolians by 
the Romans. § 14. Extension of the Achaean League. Conquest of Sparta. Death of 
Philopoemen. § 15. War between Perseus and the Romans. Conquest of Macedonia. 
§ 16. Proceedings of the Romans in Greece. § 17. Athens and Oropus. War between 
the Achseans and Spartans. § 18. The Spartans appeal to the Romans, who reduce 
Greece into a Roman Province. 

§ 1. After his repulse from Athens, Demetrius proceeded towards 
Peloponnesus, but found that his allies in that quarter had also abandoned 
him and embraced the cause of Cassander. He was, however, neither 
ruined nor discouraged. On leaving the Peloponnesus (b. c. 300) he 
proceeded to the Thracian Chersonese, and ravaged the territory of Ly- 
simachus. Whilst engaged in this expedition he was agreeably surprised 
by receiving an embassy from Seleucus, by which that monarch sohcited 
his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Demetrius gladly granted the re- 
quest, and found himself so much strengthened by this alliance, that in 
the spring of the year 296 he was in a condition again to attack Athens, 



5iJ6 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVI. 

which he captured after a long siege, and drove out the bloodthirsty 
tyrant Lachares, who had been established there by Cassander. Such 
was the extremity of famine to which the Athenians had been reduced, 
that we are told of a father and son quarrelling for a dead mouse ; and 
the philosopher Epicurus supported himself, and the society over which 
he presided, by dividing amongst them daily a small quantity of beans. 
On becoming master of the city, Demetrius, much to the surprise of the 
Athenians, treated them with great lenity and indulgence, and, in consider- 
ation of their distresses, made them a present of a large quantity of corn. 

§ 2. Meanwhile Cassander had died shortly before the siege of Athens, 
and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his eldest son, Philip 
rV.* But that young prince died in 295, and the succession was dis- 
puted between his two brothers, Antipater and Alexander. Their mother 
Thessalonica> a daughter of the great Philip, seems to have been their 
guardian, and to have attempted to arrange their disputes by dividing the 
kingdom between them ; but Antipater, thinking that sh6 favored Alexan- 
der, slew her with his own hand in a fit of jealous rage. Alexander now 
called in the aid of Pyrrhus, king of Epeirus, as well as of Deme- 
trius, who was in the Peloponnesus with his army. Pyrrhus, as the 
nearest, was the first to respond to this call, and effected a partition of 
Macedonia between the two brothers ; an arrangement, which, as it 
weakened a neighboring kingdom, was favorable to his own interests. 
Shortly afterwards (294) Demetrius, who saw in the distracted state of 
Macedonia an opening for his own ambitious designs, appeared in that 
country with his forces. Alexander having joined him with his army, 
Demetriu-s caused that young prince to be assassinated, and was saluted 
king by the troops. Demetrius reigned over Macedonia, and the greater 
part of Greece, about seven years. He aimed at recovering the whole 
of his father's dominions in Asia ; but before he was ready to take the 
field, his adversaries, alarmed at his preparations, determined to forestall 
him. In the spring of B. c. 287, Ptolemy sent a powerful fleet against 
Greece, while Pyrrhus on the one side and Lysimachus on the other 
simultaneously invaded Macedonia. Demetrius had completely alienated 
his own subjects by his proud and haughty bearing, and by his lavish ex- 
penditure on his own luxuries ; while Pyrrhus, by his generosity, affability, 
and daring courage, had become the hero of the Macedonians, who looked 
upon him as a second Alexander. The appearance of Pyrrhus was the 
signal for revolt : the Macedonian troops flocked to his standard, and De- 
metrius was compelled to fly. Pyrrhus now ascended the throne of 
Macedonia ; but his reign was of brief duration ; and at the end of seven 
months he was in turn driven out by Lysimachus. Demetrius made 
several attempts to regain his power in Greece, and then set sail for Asia, 

* Philip ArrMdaBus is called Philip III. 



B.C. 281.] LTSIMACHUS DEFEATED AND SLAIN. 527 

where he successively endeavored to establish himself in the territories of 
Lysimachus, and of his son-in-law, Seleucus. Falling at length into the 
hands of the latter, he was kept in a kind of magnificent captivity in a 
royal residence in Syria ; where, in 283, at the early age of fifty-five, his 
checkered career was brought to a close, partly by chagrin, and partly 
by the sensual indulgences with which he endeavored to divert it. 

§ 3. The history of Alexander's successors continued to be marked to 
the end by the same ambition, the same dissensions, and the same crimes 
which had stained it from the first. The power of Lysimachus had been 
greatly increased by the acquisition of Macedonia ; and he now found him- 
self in possession of all the dominions in Europe that had formed part of 
the Macedonian monarchy, as well as of the greater part of Asia Minor. 
Of Alexander's immediate successors, Lysimachus and Seleucus were the 
only two remaining competitors for power ; and with the exception of Egypt, 
those two sovereigns divided Alexander's empire between them. In Egypt 
the aged Ptolemy had abdicated in 285 in favor of his son by Berenice, 
afterwards known as Ptolemy Philadelphus, and to the exclusion of his 
eldest son, Ptolemy Ceraunus, by his wife Eurydice. Ptolemy Cerau- 
nus quitted Egypt in disgust, and fled to the court of Lysimachus : and 
although Arsinoe, the wife of Lysimachus, was own sister to his rival, 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, he succeeded in gaining her entire confidence. 
Arsinoe, jealous of her step-son Agathocles, the heir apparent to the 
throne, and desirous of securing the succession for her own children, con- 
spired with Ptolemy Ceraunus against his life. She even procured the 
consent of Lysimachus to his murder ; and after some vain attempts to 
make awa}^ Avith him by poison, he was flung into prison, where Ptolemy 
Ceraunus despatched him with his own hand. Lysandra, the mother (rf 
Agathocles, fled with the rest of her family to Seleucus, to demand from 
him protection and vengeance ; and Seleucus, induced by the hopes of suc- 
cess inspired by the discontent and dissensions which so foul an act had 
excited among the subjects of Lysimachus, espoused her cause. The 
hostihties which ensued between him and Lysimachus were brought to a 
termination by the battle of Corupedion, fought near Sardis in 281, 
in which Lysimachus Avas defeated and slain. By this victory, Mace- 
donia, and the whole of Alexander's empire, with the exception of Egypt> 
Southern Syria, Cyprus, and part of Phoenicia, fell under the sceptre 
of Seleucus. 

§ 4. That monarch, who had not beheld his native land since he 
first joined the expedition of Alexander, now crossed the Hellespont 
to take possession of Macedonia. Ptolemy Ceraunus, who after the 
battle of Corupedion had thrown himself on the mercy of Seleucus, and 
had been received with forgiveness and favor, accompanied him on this 
journey. The murder of Agathocles had not been committed by Ptolemy 
merely to oblige Arsinoe. He had even then designs upon the supreme 



528 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVI 

power, which he now completed by another crime. As Seleucus stopped 
to I sacrifice at a celebrated altar near Lysimachia in Thrace, Ptolemy 
treacherously assassinated him by stabbing him ini the back (280). After 
this base and cowardly act, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who gave himself out as 
the avenger of Lysimachus, was, by one of those movements wholly inex- 
phcable to our modern notions, saluted king by the army ; but tlie Asiatic 
dominions of Seleucus fell to his son Antiochus, surnamed Soter. The 
crime of Ptolemy, however, was speedily overtaken by a just punishment. 
In the very same year his kingdom of Macedonia and Thrace was invaded 
by an immense host of Celts, and Ptolemy fell at the head of the forces 
which he led against them. A second invasion of the same barbari- 
ans compelled the Greeks to raise a force for their defence, which was 
intrusted to the command of the Athenian Callippus (b. c. 279). On 
this occasion the Celts, attracted by the report of treasures which were 
now perhaps little more than an empty name, penetrated as far south- 
wards as Delphi, with the view of plundering the temple. The god, it is 
said, vindicated his sanctuary on this occasion in the same supernatural 
manner as when it was attacked by the Persians ; it is at all events 
certain that the Celts were repulsed witn great loss, including that of their 
leader, Brehnus. Nevertheless some of their tribes succeeded in estab- 
lishing themselves near the Danube ; others settled on the sea-coast of 
Thrace ; whilst a third portion passed over into Asia, and gave their 
name to the country called Galatia. 

§ 5. After the death of Ptolemy Ceraunus, Macedonia fell for some 
time into a state of anarchy and confusion, and the crown was disputed by 
several pretenders. At length, in 278, Antigonus Gonatas, son of Deme- 
trius Poliorcetes, succeeded in establishing himself on the throne of Mace- 
donia; and with the exception of two or three years (274-272) during 
which he was temporarily expelled by Pyrrhus, he continued to retain 
possession of it till his death in 239. The struggle between Antigonus 
and Pyrrhus was brought to a close at Argos, in 272. Pyrrhus had 
marched into the Peloponnesus with a large force in order to make war 
upon Sparta, but with the collateral design of reducing the places which 
stUl held out for Antigonus. Pyrrhus, having failed in an attempt to take 
Sparta, marched against Argos, where Antigonus also arrived with his 
forces. Both armies entered the city by opposite gates ; and in a battle 
which ensued in the streets, Pyrrhus was struck from his horse by a tile 
hurled by a woman from a house-top, and was then despatched by some 
soldiers of Antigonus. Such was the inglorious end of one of the bravest 
and most warlike monarchs of antiquity; whose character for moral 
virtue, though it would not stand the test of modern scrutiny, shone out 
conspicuously in comparison with that of contemporary sovereigns ; but 
whose enterprises, undertaken rather from the love of action than from 
any well-du'ected ambition, were rendered abortive by their desultory 
nature. 



B.C. 251. J THE ACH^AN LEAGUE. 529 

Antigonus Gonatas now made himself master of the greater part of 
Peloponnesus, which he governed by means of tyrants whom he estab- 
lished in various cities. He then applied himself to the reduction of 
Athens, whose defence was assisted by an Egyptian fleet and a Spartan 
army. This war, which is sometimes called the Chremonidean War from 
the Athenian Chremonides, who played a conspicuous part in defending the 
city, lasted six or seven years, and reduced the Athenians to great misery. 
Athens was at length taken, probably in 262. 

§ 6. While all Greece, with the exception of Sparta, seemed hopelessly 
prostrate at the feet of Macedonia, a new political power, which sheds a 
lustre on the declining period of Grecian history, arose in a smaU province 
in Peloponnesus, of which the very name has been hitherto rarely men- 
tioned since the heroic age. In Achaia, a narrow sUp of country upon the 
shores of the Corinthian Gulf, a league, chiefly for rehgious purposes, had 
existed from a very early period among the twelve chief cities of the 
province. This league, however, had never possessed much political im- 
portance, and it had been finally suppressed by the Macedonians. At the 
time of which we are speaking, Antigonus Gonatas was in possession of all 
the cities formerly belonging to the league, either by means of his garrisons 
or of the tyrants who were subservient to him. It was, however, this 
very oppression that led to a more efficient revival of the league. The 
Achaean towns, now only ten in number, as two had been destroyed by 
earthquakes, began gradually to coalesce again ; a process which was 
much facihtated after Antigonus had withdrawn from Greece to take up 
his residence at Pella, where the affairs of Macedonia chiefly occupied 
his attention. But Aratus of Sicyon, one of the most remarkable charac- 
ters of this period of Grecian history, was the man who, about the year 
251 B. c, fii-st called the new league into active political existence. 
Aratus was one of those characters who, though not deficient in boldness 
and daring, seem incapable of exerting these qualities except in stratagems 
and ambuscades. He had long lived in exile at Argos, whilst his native 
city groaned under the dominion of a succession of tyrants. Having collect- 
ed a band of exiles, Aratus surprised Sicyon in the night-time, and drove 
out the last and most unpopular of these tyrants. Instead of seizing the 
tyranny for himself, as he might easily have done, Aratus consulted only 
the advantage of his country, and with this view united Sicyon with the 
Achaean league. The accession of so important a town does not appear 
to have altered the constitution of the confederacy. The league was 
governed by a Strategus, or general, whose functions were both military 
and civil ; a Grammatens, or secretary ; and a council of ten demiurgi. 
The sovereignty, however, resided in the general assembly, which met 
twice a year in a sacred grove near ^gium. It was composed of every 
Ach^an who had attained the age of thirty, and possessed the nsht of 
electing the officers of the league, and of deciding all questions of war, 
67 



530 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVI 

peace, foreign alliances, and the like. In the year 245 b. c. Aratus waa 
elected Strategus of the league, and again in 243. In the latter of these 
years he succeeded in wresting Corinth from the Macedonians by another 
nocturnal surprise, and uniting it to the league. The confederacy now 
spread with wonderful rapidity. It was soon joined by Troezen, Epidau- 
rus, Hermione, and other cities ; and ultimately embraced Athens, Megara, 
-^gina, Salamis, and the whole Peloponnesus, with the exception of Spar- 
ta, Elis, and some of the Arcadian towns. 

§ 7. Sparta, it is true, still continued to retain her independence, but 
without a shadow of her former greatness and power. The primitive sim- 
plicity of Spartan manners had been completely destroyed by the collec- 
tion of wealth into a few hands, and by the consequent progress of luxury. 
The number of Spartan citizens had been reduced to seven hundred ; but 
even of these there were not above a hundred who possessed a sufficient 
quantity of land to maintain themselves in independence. The Spartan 
kings had ceased to be the patriotic servants and generals of their countiy. 
Like the Gondottieri of more modern times, they were accustomed, since 
the time of Alexander the Great, to let out their services to the highest 
bidder ; and, no longer content with the simple habits of their forefathers, 
they repaired to foreign courts in order to squander the wealth thus ac- 
quired in luxuries which they could not procure at home. The young 
king, Agis IV., who succeeded to the crown in 244, attempted to revive 
the ancient Spartan virtue, by restoring the institutions of Lycurgus, by 
cancelling all debts, and by making a new distribution of lands ; and with 
this view he relinquished all his own property, as well- as that of his fam- 
ily, for the public good. These reforms, though promoted by one of the 
Ephors, were opposed by Leonidas, the colleague of Agis in the monar- 
chy, who rallied the majority of the more wealthy citizens around him. 
Agis and his party succeeded, however, in deposing Leonidas, and for a 
time his plans promised to be successful ; but having undertaken an expe- 
dition to assist Aratus against the ^tolians, the opposite party took ad- 
vantage of his absence to reinstate Leonidas, and when Agis returned, he 
was put to death (241). But a few years afterwards, Cleomenes, the son 
of Leonidas, succeeded in effecting the reforms which had been contem- 
plated by Agis ; a course which he was probably induced to take by the 
widow of Agis, whom he had married. It was his militaiy successes that 
enabled Cleomenes to carry out his political views. Aratus, in his zeal for 
extending the Achaean confederacy, attempted to seize the Arcadian towns 
of Orchomenus, Tegea, and Mantinea, which the -S^tolians had ceded to 
Sparta, whereupon a war ensued (227-226) in which the forces of the 
league were defeated by Cleomenes. The latter then suddenly returned 
home at the head of his victorious army, and, after putting the Ephors to 
death, proceeded to carry out the reforms projected by Agis, as well aa 
■several others which regarded military discipline. The effect of these 



B. C. 220.] THE ^TOLIAN LEAGUE. 53"' 

new measures soon became visible in the increased success of the Spartan 
arms. Aratus was so hard pressed that he was compelled to solicit tho 
assistance of the Macedonians. Both Antigonus Gonatas and his son De- 
metrius II. — who had reigned in Macedonia from 239 to 226 b, c. — 
were now dead, and the government was administered by Antigonus Do- 
son, as guardian of Philip, the youthful son of Demetrius II. Antigonus 
Doson, who obtained the latter surname from his readiness in making 
promises, was the grandson of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and the nephew of 
Antigonus Gonatas. The Macedonians compelled him to accept the 
crown : but he remained faithful to his trust as guardian of Philip, whose 
mother he married ; and though he had children of his own by her, yet 
Philip succeeded him on his death. It was to Antigonus Doson that 
Aratus applied for assistance ; and in 223 the Macedonian king marched 
into the Peloponnesus and compelled Cleomenes to retire into Laconia. 
This war between Cleomenes and Aratus, which is called the Cleomenic 
war, lasted altogether about six years. It broke out in 227, and was not 
brought to a close till two years after the intervention of Doson. After 
his defeat, Cleomenes raised a considerable sum by allowing six thousand 
Helots to purchase their freedom ; and having thus recruited his army, he 
in the following year attacked and destroyed Megalopolis. He afterwards 
pushed his successes up to the very walls of Argos; but in 221 he was to- 
tally defeated by Antigonus Doson in the fatal battle of Sellasia in Laco- 
nia. The army of Cleomenes was almost totally annihilated ; he himself 
was obliged to fly to Egypt ; and Sparta, which for many centuries had 
remained unconquered, fell into the hands of the victor. 

§ 8. Antigonus, however, did not live long to enjoy his success. Be- 
fore the end of the year he was recalled to Macedonia by an invasion of 
the Illyrians, which he repelled; but he shortly afterwards died of a con- 
gmnption. He was succeeded by Philip V., the son of Demetrius II., 
who was then about sixteen or seventeen years of age. His youth en- 
couraged the ^tolians to make predatory incursions into the Peloponnesus. 
That people were a species of freebooters, and the terror of their neigh- 
bors ; yet they were united, like the Achseans, in a confederacy or league. 
The ^tolian League was a confederation of tribes instead of cities, like 
the Achsean. Its history is involved in obscurity; but it must at all 
events have had a fixed constitution even in the time of Philip and Alex- 
ander the Great, since Aristotle wrote a treatise on it ; and after the death 
of Alexander we find the League taking a prominent part in the Lamian 
war. The diet or council of the league, called the Panaetolicum, assem- 
bled every autumn, generally at Thermon, to elect the Strategus and other 
officers ; but the details of its affairs were conducted by a committee called 
Apocleti, who seem to have formed a sort of permanent council. The 
^tolians had availed themselves of the disorganized state of Greece con- 
sequent upon the death of Alexander to extend their power, and had 



532 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL VI 

gradually made themselves masters of Locris, Pliocis, Boeotia, together 
with ^portions of Acarnania, Thessaly, and Epeirus. Thus both the Am- 
phictyonic Council and the oracle of Delphi were in their power. They 
had early wrested Naupactus from the Achgeans, and had subsequently 
acquired several Peloponnesian cities. 

§ 9. Such was the condition of the ^tolians at the time of Philip's ac- 
cession. Soon after that event we find them, under the leadership of Do- 
rimachus, engaged in a series of freebooting expeditions in Messenia, and 
other parts of Peloponnesus. Aratus marched to the assistance of the 
Messenians at the head of the Achgean forces, but was totally defeated in 
a battle near Caphyas. The Achaeans now saw no hope of safety except 
through the assistance of Philip. That young monarch was ambitious and 
enterprising, possessing considerable military ability and much political 
sagacity. He readily listened to the application of the Achasans, and in 
220 entered into an alliance with them. The war which ensued between 
the -i9Etolians on one side, and the Achaeans, assisted by Philip, on the 
other, and which lasted about three years, has been called the Social War. 
PhiHp gained several victories over the -S^tolians, but he concluded a 
treaty of peace with them in 217, because he was anxious to turn his arms 
against another and more formidable power. 

§ 10. The great struggle, now going on between Rome and Carthage, 
attracted the attention of the whole civilized world. It was evident that 
Greece, distracted by intestine quarrels, must soon be swallowed up by 
whichever of those great states might prove successful ; and of the two, 
the ambition of the Romans, who had already gained a footing on the east- 
ern shores of the Adriatic, was by far the more formidable to Greece. 
Philip's inclination to take part in the great struggle in the west was in- 
creased by the news of the overthrow of the Romans at the lake of Tra- 
simene ; and he therefore readily listened to the advice and solicitations of 
Demetrius of Pharos, who had been driven by the Romans from his II- 
lyrian dominions, and who now appealed to him for assistance. After the 
conclusion of the peace with the -35tolians, Philip prepared a large fleet, 
which he employed to watch the movements of the Romans, and in the 
following year (216) he concluded a treaty with Hannibal, which, among 
other clauses, provided that the Romans should not be allowed to retain 
their conquests on the eastern side of the Adriatic. He even meditated 
an invasion of Italy, and with that view endeavored to make himself mas- 
ter of Apollonia and Oricum. But though he succeeded in taking the 
latter city, the Romans, under M. Valerius Lsevinus, surprised his camp 
whilst he was besieging Apollonia ; and as they had likewise blockaded 
the mouth of the river Aous with their fleet, Philip was compelled to burn 
his ships and retire. Meanwhile Philip had acted in a most arbitrary 
manner in the affairs of Greece ; and when Aratus remonstrated with him 
respecting his proceedings, he got rid of his former friend and counselloi 
by means of a slow and secret poison (b. c. 213). 



B. C. 208.] PHILOPOEMEN. 533 

When the aifeirs of the Eomans had begun to recover in Italy, they di- 
rected tlieir attention more seriously towards Greece, and in the year 211 
concluded an alliance with the -3itolians, who were now weary of peace, 
and, declared war against Philip. Before the end of the year, the Romans 
made themselves masters of Zacynthus, with the exception of the capital; 
and, having also wrested G^niadge and Naxos from the Acarnanians, trans- 
ferred these acquisitions to the ^tolians, and retained the booty for them- 
selves, agreeably to the treaty. In the following year the town of Ajiti- 
cyra and the island of ^gina were treated in a similar manner. 

§ 11. In B. c. 209, the Achseans, being hard pressed by the JEtolians, 
were again induced to call in the aid of Philip. The spirit of the Acbse- 
ans was at this time revived by Philopoemen, one of the few noble charac- 
ters of the period, and who has been styled by Plutarch '' the last of the 
Greeks." He was a native of Megalopolis in Arcadia, and had already 
distinguished himself in the Cleomenic war, and especially at the battle of 
Sellasia, which was mainly won by a decisive charge which he made, 
without orders, at the head of the Megalopolitan horse. In 210 he was 
appointed to the command of the Achaean cavalry, and in 208 he was 
elected Strategus of the League. In both these posts Philopoemen made 
great alterations and improvements in the arms and discipline of the 
Achaean forces, which he assimilated to those of the Macedonian phalanx. 
These reforms, as well as the public spirit with which he had inspired the 
Aehaeans, were attended with the most beneficial results. In 207 Philo- 
poemen gained at Mantinea a signal victory over the Lacedaemonians, who 
had joined the Roman alliance ; four thousand of them w^ere left U2)on the 
field, and among them Machanidas, who had made himself tyrant of 
Sparta, This decisive battle, combined with the withdrawal of the Ro- 
mans, who, being desirous of turning their undivided attention towards 
Carthage, had made peace with Philip (205), secured for a few years the 
tranquilhty of Greece. It also raised the fame of Philopoemen to its high- 
est point; and in the next Nemean festival, being a second time general of 
the league, he was hailed by the assembled Greeks as the liberator of their 
country. 

§ 12. Upon the conclusion of the second Punic war, the Romans 
renewed their enterprises in Greece, for which the conduct of Philip, who 
had assisted the Carthaginians, afforded them ample pretence, ^ilip's 
attempts in the ^gean Sea and in Attica had also caused many com- 
plaints to be lodged against him at Rome ; and in b. c. 200 the Romans 
declared war against. him. Athens, which he had besieged, was relieved 
by a Roman fleet ; but before he withdrew, Philip, prompted by anger 
and revenge, displayed his barbarism by destroying the gardens and 
buildings in the suburbs, including the Lyceum and the tombs of the 
Attic heroes ; and in a second incursion which he made, with large rein- 
forcements, he committed still greater excesses. For some time, however 



534 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVI 

the war lingered on without any decided success on either side. But ir 
198 the Consul T. Quinctius FlaminTnus succeeded in gaining over the 
Achaean league to the Roman alliance ; and as the j3j^tolians had pre- 
viously deserted Philip, both those powers fought for a short time on the 
same side. In 197 the struggle between the Romans and Philip was 
brought to a termination by the battle of Cynoscephalse, near Scotussa, in 
Tliessaly, which decided the fate of the Macedonian monarchy. Philip 
was obliged to sue for peace, and in the tollowing year (19G) a treaty was 
ratified, by which the Macedonians were compelled to renounce their su- 
premacy, to withdraw their garrisons from the Grecian towns, to surrender 
their fleet, and to pay a thousand talents for the expenses of the war. At 
the ensuing Isthmian games, Flamininus solemnly proclaimed the freedom 
of the Greeks, and was received by them with overwhelming joy and 
gratitude. The Romans, however, still held the fortresses of the Acrocorin- 
thos, Demetrias, and Chalcis; and it was not till 194 that they showed 
any real intention of carrying out their promises by withdrawing their 
armies from Greece. 

§ 13. The JEtolians, dissatisfied with these arrangements, endeavored 
to persuade Nabis, who had succeeded Machanidas as tyrant of Sparta, 
Antiochus III., king of Syria, as well as Philip, to enter into a league 
against the Romans. But Antiochus alone, at whose court Hannibal was 
then residing as a refugee, ventured to listen to these overtures. He 
passed over into Greece with a wholly inadequate force, and was de- 
feated by the Romans at Thermopylae (b. c. 191). The ^tolians were 
now compelled to make head against the Romans by themselves. After 
some ineffectual attempts at resistance, they were reduced to sue for 
peace, which they at length obtained, but on the most humiliating condi- 
tions (b. c. 189). These, as dictated to them in Ambracia, by M. Fulvius 
Nobilior, differed but little from an unconditional surrender. They were 
required to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome, to renounce all the con- 
quests they had recently made, to pay an indemnity of five hundred tal- 
ents, and to engage in future to aid the Romans in their ware. The 
power of the ^tolian league was thus for ever crushed, though it seems 
to have existed, in name at least, till a much later period. 

§ 14. The Achasan league still subsisted, but was destined before long 
to exDfirience the same fate as its rival. At first, indeed, it enjoyed the 
protecRon of the Romans, and even acquired an extension of members 
through their influence ; but this protectorate involved a state of almost 
absolute dependence. Philopoemen also had succceeded, in the year 192, 
in adding Sparta to the league, which now embraced the whole of Pelo- 
ponnesus. But Sparta having displayed symptoms of insubordination, 
Philopcemen marched against it in 188, and captured the city; when he 
put to death eighty of the leading men, commanded all the inhabitants 
who had been enfranchised by the recent tyrants to leave the place by a 



B. C. 172.] WAR BETWEEN PERSEUS AND THE ROMANS. 535 

fixed day, razed the walls and fortifications, abolished the institutions of 
Lycurgus, and compelled the citizens to adopt the democratic constitution 
of the Achaians. Meanwhile, the Romans regarded with satisfaction the 
internal dissensions of Greece, which they foresaw would only render her 
an easier prey, and neglected to answer the appeals of the Spartans for 
protection. In 183 the Messenians, under the leadership of Dinocrates, 
having revolted from the league, Philopojmen, who had now attained the 
age of seventy, led an expedition against them ; but having fallen from his 
horse in a skirmish of cavalry, he was captured, and conveyed with many 
circumstances of ignominy to Messene, where, after a sort of mock trial, 
he was executed. His ikte was avenged by Lycortas, the commander of 
the Achaean cavalry, the tnllier of the historian Polybius. In the follow- 
ing year, Lycortas, now Strategus, captured Me.-sene, and having com- 
pelled those who had 'ueeii coiicerned in the death of Philopoenien to put an 
end to their own lives, cunvfyed the asiies of that general to Megalopolis, 
where they were interred with heroic honors. 

§ 15. In B. c. 179 Philip died, and was succeeded by his son Perseus, 
the last monarch of Macedonia. The latter years of the reign of Philip 
had been spent in preparations for a renewal of the war, which he foresaw 
to be inevitable ; and when Perseus ascended the throne, he found himself 
amply provided with men and money for the impending contest. But, 
whether from a sincere desire of peace, or from irresolution of character, 
he sought to avert an open rupture as long as possible, and one of the first 
acts of his reign was to obtain from the Romans a renewal of the treaty 
which they had concluded with his father. It is probable that neither 
party was sincere in the conclusion of this peace, at least neither could 
entertain any hope of its duration ; yet a pei'iod of seven years elapsed 
before the mutual enmity of the two powers broke out into open hostiUties. 
Meanwhile, Perseus was not idle ; he secured the attachment of his sub- 
jects by equitable and popular measures, and formed alliances, not only 
with the Greeks and the Asiatic princes, but also with the Thracian, II- 
lyrian, and Celtic tribes which surrounded his dominions. The Romans 
naturally viewed these proceedings with jealousy and suspicion ; and at 
length, in 172, Perseus was formally accused before the Roman Senate, by 
Eumenes, king of Pergamus, in person, of entertaining hostile designs 
against the Roman power. The murder of Eumenes near Delphi, on his 
return homewards, of which Perseus was suspected, aggravated the feel- 
ing against him at Rome, and in the following year war was declared 
against him. 

Perseus was at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army, but of 
all his allies only Cotys, king of the Odrysians, ventured to support him 
against so formidable a foe. Yet the war was protracted three years with- 
out any decisive result ; nay, the balance of success seemed on the whole to 
incline in favor of Perseus, and many states, which before were wavering, 



536 HISTORY OF GKEECE. [ChAP. XL VI 

now showed a disposition to join his cause. But his ill-timed parsimony 
restrained him from taking advantage of their offers, and in 1 68 the arrival 
of the Consul L. ^milius Paulus completely changed the aspect of af- 
fairs. Perseus was driven from a strong position which he had taken up 
on the hanks of the Enipeus, forced to retreat to Pydna, and finally to ac- 
cept an engagement near that town. At first the serried ranks of the 
phalanx seemed to promise superiority ; but its order having been broken 
by the inequalities of the ground, the Roman legionaries penetrated into 
the disordered mass, and committed fearful carnage, to the extent, it is 
said, of twenty thousand men. Perseus fled first to Pella, then to Am- 
phipolis, and finally to the sanctuary of the sacred island of Samothrace, 
but was at length obliged to surrender himself to a Roman squadron. He 
was carried to Rome to adorn the triumph of Paulus (167), and was after- 
wards cast into a dungeon ; from whence, however, he was liberated at the 
intercession of his conqueror, and permitted to spend the remainder of his 
life in a sort of honorable captivity at Alba. Such was the end of the 
Macedonian empire, which was now divided into four districts, each under 
the jurisdiction of an oligarchical council. 

§ 16. The Roman commissioners deputed to arrange the affairs of Ma- 
cedonia did not confine their attention to that province, but evinced their 
designs of bringing all Greece under the Roman sway. In these views 
they were assisted by various despots and traitors in different Gre- 
cian cities, and especially by Callicrates, a man of great influence among 
the Ach^ans, and who for many years lent himself as the base tool of the 
Romans to effect the enslavement of his country. After the fall of Mace- 
donia, Callicrates denounced more than a thousand leading Achseans who 
had favored the cause of Perseus. These, among whom was Polybius the 
historian, were apprehended and sent to Rome for trial. Polybius was 
one of the survivors, who, after a captivity of seventeen years, were per- 
mitted to return to their native country. A still harder fate w^s experi- 
enced by ^tolia, Bceotia, Acarnania, and Epeirus. In the last-named 
country, especially, no fewer than seventy of the principal towns were 
abandoned by Paulus to his soldiers for pillage, and a hundred and fifty 
thousand persons are said to have been sold into slavery. 

§ 17. An obscure quarrel between Athens and Oropus was the remote 
cause which at length afforded the Romans a pretence for crushing the 
small remains of Grecian independence by the destruction of the Achaean 
league. For some time Athens had been reduced to a sort of political 
mendicancy, and was often fain to seek assistance in her distress from the 
bounty of the Eastern princes or of the Ptolemies of Egypt. In the year 
156 the poverty of the Athenians became so urgent, that they were 
induced to make a piratical expedition against Oropus for the purposes of 
plunder. On the complaint of the Oropians, the Roman Senate assigned 
the adjudication of the matter to the Sicyonians, who condemned the 



B. C. 147.] EOMAN COMMISSIONERS SENT TO GREECE. 537 

Athenians to pay the large fine of five hundred talents. Li order to ob- 
tain a mitigation of this fine the Athenians despatched to Rome (in 151) 
the celebrated embassy of the three philosophers, — Diogenes the Stoic? 
Critolaiis the Peripatetic, and Carneades, the founder of the third Acad- 
emy. The ambassadors were nominally successful, since they obtained a 
reduction of the fine to a hundred talents ; a sum, however, still much 
greater than the Athenians were in a condition to pay. The subsequent 
relations between Athens and Oropus are obscure ; but in 150 we find the 
Oropians complaining of a fresh aggression, which consisted in an attack 
upon some of their citizens by the Athenian soldiers. On this occasioti 
the Oropians appealed for protection to the Achsean league, which, how- 
ever, at first declined to interfere. The Oropians now bribed a Spartan 
named Menalcidas, who was at that time Strategus, with a present of ten 
talents ; and Menalcidas employed the corrupt influence of Callicrates to 
procure the intervention of the league. Menalcidas having subsequently 
defrauded Callicrates of the sum which he had promised him, the lat- 
ter accused him of having advised the Romans during his administration 
to effect the detachment of Sparta from the league. Menalcidas escaped 
condemnation by bribing Diteus, his successor in the office of Strategus. 
But such was the obloquy incurred by DiiBus through this transaction, 
that, in order to divert public attention from himself, he incited the Achae- 
ans to violent measures against Sparta, which ultimately involved the 
league in a fatal struggle with Rome. His pretext for making war on the 
Spartans was, that, instead of appealing to the league respecting a boun- 
dary question, as they ought to have done, they had violated its laws by 
sending a private embassy to Rome. 

§ 18. The Spartans, feeling themselves incompetent to resist this attack, 
appealed to the Romans for assistance ; and in 1 47 two Roman commis- 
sioners were sent to Greece to settle these disputes. These commissioners 
decided that not only Sparta, but Corinth, and all the other cities except 
those of Achaia, should be restored to their independence. This decision 
occasioned serious riots at Corinth. All the Spartans in the town were 
seized, and even the Roman commissioners narrowly escaped violence. 
On their return to Rome a fresh embassy was despatched to demand sat- 
isfaction for these outrages. But the violent and impolitic conduct of 
Critolaiis, then Strategus of the league, rendered all attempts at accommo- 
dation fruitless, and after the return of the ambassadors the Senate de- 
clared war against the league. The cowardice and incompetence of Crito- 
laiis as a general were only equalled by his previous insolence. On the 
approach of the Romans under Metellus from Macedonia, he did not even 
venture to make a stand at Thermopylce ; and being overtaken by them 
near Scarphea in Locris, he was totally defeated, and never again heard 
of. Di^eus, who succeeded him as Strategus, displayed rather more en- 
ergy and courage. But a fresh Roman force under Mummius having 
68 



538 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap, XL VI 



landed on the isthmus, Diaaus was overthrown in a battle near Corinth j 
and that city was immediately evacuated, not only by the troops of the 
league, but also by the greater part of the inhabitants. On entering it 
Muramius put the few males who remained to the sword ; sold the women 
and children as slaves ; and, having carried away all its treasures, con- 
signed it to the flames (b. c. 146). Corinth was filled with masterpieces 
of ancient art ; but Mummius was so insensible of their surpassing excel- 
lence, as to stipulate with those who contracted to convey them to Italy, 
that, if any were lost in the passage, they should be replaced by others of 
equal value ! Mummius then employed himself in chastising and regulat- 
ing the whole of Greece ; and ten commissioners were sent from Home to 
settle its future condition. The whole country, to the borders of Macedo- 
nia and Epeirus, was formed into a Roman province, under the name of 
Achaia, derived from that confederacy which had made the last struggle 
for its political existence. 




Apollo Citharcedus. From the collection in the Yaticao. 



Chat. XLVII.l later school of attic souli'ture. 



53!i 




Group of the Laocoon in the Vatican. 

CHAPTEE XLVII. 

HISTORY OF GRECIAN ART FROM THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAJR 
WAR TO ITS DECLINE. 



§ 1. Later School of Athenian Sculpture. § 2. Scopas. § 3. Praxiteles. § 4. Sicyoniao 
School of Sculpture. Euphranor, Lysippus. § 5. Sicyonian School of Painting. Eu- 
pompus, Pamphilus, Apelles. § 6. Architecture. § 7. Period after Alexander the 
Great. School of Rhodes. § 8. Plunder of Greek Works of Art by the Romans. 

§ 1. After the close of the Peloponnesian war, what is called the second 
or later school of Attic sculpture still continued to assert its pre-eminence. 
In style and character, however, it presented a marked difference from the 
school of the preceding age. The excitement and misfortunes which had 
attended the war had worked a great change in the Athenians. This was 
communicated to their works of art, which now manifested an expression 
of stronger passion and of deeper feeling. The serene and composed 
majesty which had marked the gods and heroes of the earlier artists alto- 
gether vanished. The new school of sculptors preferred to take other 
deities for their subjects than those which had been selected by their pre- 
decessors ; and Zeus, Hera, and Athena gave place to gods characterized 
by more violent feelings and passions, such as Dionysus, Aphrodite, and 
Eros. These formed the favorite subjects of the later Athenian school, 
and received from it that stamp and character of representation which they 
retained through the succeeding period of classic art. A change is also 
observable in the materials employed, and in the technical handling of 



540 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ClIAP. XLVll 

them. The magnificently adorned chryso-elephantine statues almost wholly 
disappear ; marble becomes more frequently used, especially by the Athe- 
nian statuaries, and the whole execution is softer and more flowing. 

§ 2. The only two artists of this school whom it will be necessary to men- 
tion are Scopas and Praxiteles. Scopas was a native of Paros, and flour- 
ished in the first half of the fourth century B. c. His exact date cannot be 
ascertained, nor is there anything known of his life, except in connection 
witli his works, of which some specimens still remain. Among these are 
the bas-reliefs on the frieze of the peristyle which surrounded the Mauso- 
leum, or tomb of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus (^Budrum), some of which 
are now deposited in the British Museum (Budruni Marbles). Their 
style is very similar to that of the sculptures on the frieze of the Choragic 
Monument of Lysicrates, which is of the same period of art.* Both are 
of high excellence, but inferior to the frieze of the Parthenon. Scopas, 
however, was more famous for single statues and detached groups than for 
architectural sculpture. His statues of Aphrodite were very celebrated in 
antiquity. That of the Victorious Aphrodite (Venus Victrix) in the 
Louvre at Paris is ascribed to his chisel by many competent judges. But 
the most esteemed of all his works was a group representing Achilles con- 
ducted by the marine deities to the island of Leuce. It consisted of figures 
of Poseidon, Thetis, and Achilles, surrounded by Nereids on dolphins, 
huge fishes, and hippocampi, and attended by Tritons and sea-monsters. 
In the treatment of the subject, heroic grandeur is said to have been 
combined with grace. A group better known in modern times, from 
a copy of it preserved in the Museum at Florence, is that of Niobe and 
her children slain by the hands of Artemis and ApoUo.f There can be 
no doubt that it filled the pediment of a temple. At a later period it was 
preserved in the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome, but it was a disputed 
point among the Romans whether it was from the hands of Scopas or 
Praxiteles. In the noble forms of the countenances grief and despair are 
portrayed without distortion. Another celebrated work of Scopas was the 
statue of the Pythian Apollo playing on the lyre, which Augustus placed in 
the temple which he built to Apollo on the Palatine, in thanksgiving for 
his victory at Actium. The copy of this statue in the Vatican is figured 
on p. 538. Scopas was an architect as well as a statuary, and built the 
temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, in Arcadia, one of the largest and most 
magnificent in the Peloponnesus. 

§ 3. Pi'axiteles was contemporary with Scopas, though perhaps some- 
what younger. Nothing is positively known of his history, except that he 
was at least a citizen, if not a native, of Athens, and that his career as an 
artist was intimately connected with that city. He excelled in represent- 
ing the softer beauties of the human form, and especially the female 

* See below, p. 544. t See drawing on p. 514. 



Chap XLVII.] SICTONIAN SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE. 541 

figure. But art had now sunk from its lofty and ideal majesty. The 
Cnidian Apl'.rodite, the masterpiece of Praxiteles, expressed only sensual 
charms, and was avowedly modelled from the courtesan Phryne. Yet 
such was its excellence that many made a voyage to Cnidos on purpose to 
behold it ; and so highly did the Cnidians prize it, that they refused to 
part with it to King Nicomedes, although he offered to pay off" their public 
debt in exchange for it. In this work Aphrodite was represented either 
as just entering or just quitting the bath ; and it is said to have been the 
first instance in which any artist had ventured to represent the goddess en- 
tirely divested of drapery. At the same time he made a draped statue of 
the goddess for the Coans, which however never enjoyed so much reputa- 
tion as tlie former, though Praxiteles obtained the same price for it. He 
also made two statues of Eros, one of which he deemed his masterpiece. 
It is related that, in his fondness for Phryne, he promised to give her any 
statue she might choose, but was unwilhng to tell her wliich he considered 
his masterpiece. In order to ascertain this point Phryne sent a message 
to Praxiteles that his house was on fire ; at which news he rushed out, ex- 
claiming that he was undone if the fire had touched his Satyr or his 
Eros. He also excelled in representing Dionysus with his fauns and 
satyrs. A statue of Apollo, known as Apollo Sauroctonos, or the lizard- 
killer, was among his most famous pieces. It was in bronze, and nu- 
merous copies of it are still extant. 

§ 4. The later Athenian school of sculpture was succeeded by the 
Sicyonian school. It is characterized by representations of heroic strength 
and of the forms of athletfe, and by a striving after the colossal. Its 
chief artists were Euphranor and Lysippus. Euphranor was a native of 
the Corinthian isthmus, but practised his art at Athens. He appears to 
have flourished during the time of Philip of Macedon, and beyond the 
period of Alexander's accession. He excelled in painting as well as in 
statuary. He executed figures in bronze and marble of all sizes, from a 
drinking-cup to a colossal statue. One of his most celebrated works was 
a statue of Paris. Lysippus was a native of Sicyon, and flourished during 
the reign of Alexander the Great. He was originally a mere workman 
in bronze, but through his genius and a sedulous study of nature rose to 
the highest eminence as a statuary. He followed the school of Polycle- 
tus, whose Doryphoros formed his standard model ; but by this course of 
study the ideal of art was sacrificed to the merely natural. Hercules, 
a human hero, was the favorite subject of his chisel ; but he deviated 
from the former models, in which Hercules was endowed with ponderous 
strength, and represented him as characterized by strength and agihty 
combined. This type was adopted by subsequent artists. The celebrated 
Farnese Hercules in the Museum at Naples is probably a copy of one of 
his works. Lysippus excelled in portraits ; in which department he also 
adhered to his principles of art, and followed nature so closely as to per- 



542 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL VII 

tray even the defects of his subjects. Thus, in his busts of Alexander, he 
did not omit his wry neck. Nevertheless, that monarch was so pleased 
with his performances, that he forbade anybody but Lysippus and Apel- 
les to represent him. The most renowned of Lysippus's statues of Alex- 
ander was that which represented him brandishing a lance, and which was 
regarded as a companion to the picture of Apelles, in which he wielded a 
thunderbolt. 

It has been observed that the features of Alexander pervade most of 
the heroic statues of this period. Lysippus worked principally in bronze. 
One of his most celebrated productions was an equestrian group of the 
chieftains who fell at the battle of the Granicus. His works were very 
numerous, and are said to have amounted to fifteen hundred. 

§ 5. With regard to painting, the Asiatic school of Zeuxis and Parrha- 
sius was also succeeded by a Sicyonian school, of which Eupompus may 
be considered as the founder. He was excelled, however, by his pupil 
Pamphilus, who was renowned as a teacher of his art, and founded a sort 
of academy. His period of instruction extended over ten years, and his 
fee was a talent. The school of Pamphilus produced several celebrated 
artists, of whom Apelles was by far the greatest. 

Apelles seems to have been a native of Colophon, in Ionia ; but, as we 
have said, he studied ten years under Pamphilus at Amphipolis ; and sub- 
sequently, even after he had attained some reputation, under Melanthius at 
Sicyon. Thus to the grace and elegance of the Ionic school he added the 
scientific accuracy of the Sicyonian. The greater part of his life seems to 
have been spent at the court of Pella. He was warmly patronized by 
Alexander, who frequently visited his studio, and, as mentioned before, 
granted him the exclusive privilege of painting his portrait. In one of 
these visits Alexander began to descant on art, but exposed his igno- 
rance so much that Apelles gave him a polite hint to be silent, as the 
boys who were grinding the colors were laughing at him. He apipears to 
have accompanied Alexander in his Eastern expedition, and after the 
death of that monarch to have travelled through the western parts of Asia. 
He spent the latter part of his life at the court of King Ptolemy in Egypt. 
The character of Apelles presents us with traits quite the reverse of the 
silly vanity of Zeuxis. He was always ready to acknowledge his own 
faults, as well as the merits of others. In fact, there was only one point 
in which he asserted his superiority over his contemporaries, namely, 
grace ; and there can be no doubt that this was no vain assumption. He 
was not ashamed to learn from the humblest critics. With this view he 
was accustomed to exhibit his unfinished pictures before his house, and to 
conceal himself behind them in order to hear the criticisms of the passers- 
by. On one of these occasions a cobbler detected a fault in the shoes of 
one of his figures, which Apelles corrected. The next time he passed, 
the cobbler, encouraged by the success of his criticism, began to remark 



Chap. XLVII.J architectuke. 543 

upon the leg; at which the artist lost all patience, and, rushing from 
behind his picture, commanded the cobbler to keep to his shoes. Hence 
the proverb, " Ne sutor ultra crepidam," — Let the cobbler stick to his last. 
His conduct towards his contemporary, Protogenes of Rhodes, exhibits a 
generosity not always found among rival artists. On arriving at Rhodes, 
Apelles saw that the works of Protogenes were scarcely at all valued by 
his countrymen ; whereupon he offered him fifty talents for one of his 
pictures, at the same time spreading the report that he meant to sell it 
again as one of his own. Apelles studied with the greatest industry, and 
always went on trying to improve himself; yet he knew when to leave off 
correcting his pictures, and laid it down as a maxim that over-care often 
spoiled a piece. His pictures seem to have been chiefly on movable 
panels, and he was probably the first who used a sort of varnish to his 
pictures, with an effect somewhat similar to that of the modern toning or 
glazing. He generally painted single figures, or groups of only a few. 
He excelled in portraits, among the most celebrated of which was that 
already mentioned of Alexander wielding the thunderbolt. The hand 
which held it seemed to stand out of the panel ; and in order to heighten 
this effect of foreshortening, Alexander's complexion was made dark, 
though in reality it was light. The price paid for this picture was 
twenty talents. But the most admired of all his paintings was the 
" Aphrodite (Venus) Anadyomene," * or Aphrodite rising from the Sea. 
The goddess was represented wringing her hair, whilst the falling drops 
formed a veil around her. It was originally painted for the temple of 
-lEsculapius at Cos, and was afterwards placed by Augustus in the temple 
which he dedicated to Julius Caesar at Rome. Another figure of Aphro- 
dite, also painted for the Coans, Apelles left incomplete at his death, 
and nobody could be found to finish it. By the general consent of the 
ancients Apelles was the first of painters, and some of the later Latin 
poets use his name as a synonyme for the art itself. 

§ 6. The architecture of this period was marked rather by the laying 
out of cities in a nobler and more convenient fashion, and by the increase 
of splendor in private residences, tlian by any improvement in the style of 
public buildings and temples. The conquests of Alexander caused the 
foundation of new cities, and introduced into the East the architecture of 
Greece. The two finest examples of cities which arose in this manner 
were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria. The regularity of its 
plan, the colossal size of its public buildings, and the beauty and solidity 
of its private houses, rendered Alexandria a sort of model city ; yet it was 
surpassed by Antioch in the pleasing nature of the impression produced. 
The fittings and furniture of the apartments kept pace with the increased 
external splendor of private dwellings. This age was also distinguished 

* f] avabvofievr] Afjipoblrri . 



544 HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. XL VII 



bj its splendid sepulchral monuments : the one to the memory of her 
husband Mausolus, erected at Halicarnassus, by the Carian Queen 
Artemisia, was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. It 
was adorned with sculptural decorations by the greatest artists of the later 
Attic school. (See p. 540.) At the same time temple architecture was 
not neglected ; but the simple and solid grandeur of the Doric order, and 
the chaste grace of the Ionic, began to give place to the more florid 
Corinthian. 

One of the most graceful monuments of this period still extant is the 
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, at Athens, vulgarly called the Lantern 
of Demosthenes, which was dedicated by Lysicrates in B. c. 335, as we 
learn from an inscription on the architrave, in commemoration of a vic- 
tory gained by the chorus of Lysicrates in the dramatic contests. It 
is a small, circular building on a square basement, of white marble, and 
covered by a cupola, supported by six Corinthian columns ; the summit. 
of the cupola was formerly crowned by the tripod which Lysicrates 
had gained as the prize. The frieze of the monument, of which there are 
casts in the British Museum, represents the destruction of the Tyrrhenian 
pirates by Dionysus and his attendants. A drawing of the monument is 
given on p. 407, and portions of the frieze are figured on pp. 427, 428. 
Another extant monument of this period at Athens is the Horologium of 
Andronicus Cyrrhestes, probably erected about B. (J. 100, and vulgarly 
called the " Temple of the Winds," from the figures of the Winds upon its 
faces. It is an octagonal tower, with its eight sides facing respectively 
the direction of the eight winds into which the Athenian compass was di- 
vided. The directions of the several sides are indicated by the figures and 
names of the eight Winds, which were sculptured on the frieze of the en- 
tablature. On the summit of the building there stood originally a bronze 
figure of a Triton, holding a wand in his right hand, and turning on a 
pivot, so as to serve for a weathercock. (See drawing on p. 657.) 

§ 7. After the age of Alexander, Greek art began visibly to decline. 
The great artists that had gone before had fixed the ideal types of the 
ordinary subjects of the sculptor and painter, and thus in a manner ex- 
hausted invention ; whilst all the technical details of handling and treat- 
ment bad been brought to the highest state of perfection and development. 
The attempt to outdo the great masterpieces which already existed in- 
duced artists to depart from the simple grace of the ancient models, and to 
replace it by striking and theatrical effect. The pomp of the monarchs 
who had divided amongst them the empire of Alexander required a dis- 
play of Eastern magnificence, and thus also led to a meretricious style in 
art. Nevertheless, it was impossible that the innate excellence of the 
Greek schools should disappear altogether and at once. The perfect mod- 
els that were always present could not fail to preserve a certain degree of 
taste ; and even after the time of Alexander, we find many works of great 



Chap. XLVII.] SCHOOL OF RHODES. 545 

excellence produced. Art, however, began to emigrate from Greece to 
the coasts and islands of Asia Minor : Rhodes, especially, remained an 
eminent school of art almost down to the Christian era. This school was 
an immediate offshoot of that of Lysippus, and its chief founder was the 
Rhodian Chares, who flourished about the beginning of the third century 
B. c. His most noted work was the statue of the Sun, which, under the 
name of the Colossus of Rhodes, was esteemed one of the seven wonders 
of the world. It was of bronze, and 105 feet high. It stood at the en- 
trance of the harbor of Rhodes ; but the statement that its legs extended 
over the mouth of the harbor does not rest on any authentic foundation. 
It was twelve years in erecting, at a cost of tliree hundred talents, and 
was so large that there were few who could embrace its thumb. It was 
overthrown by an earthquake fifty-six years after its erection. But the 
most beautiful work of the Rhodian school at this period is the famous 
group of the Laocoon in the Vatican, so well known by its many copies. 
(See drawing on p. 539.) It was the work of three sculptors, Agesander, 
Polydorus, and Athenodorus. In this group the pathos of physical suffer- 
ing is expressed in the highest degree, but not without a certain theatrical 
air and straining for effect, which the best age of Greek art would have 
rejected. To the same school belongs the celebrated group called the Farne- 
sian BuU, in the Museum at Naples, representing Zethus and Amphion bind- 
ing Dirce to a wild bull, in order to avenge their mother. (See drawing 
on p. 525.) It was the work of two brothers, Apollonius and Tauriscus of 
Tralles. About the same time eminent schools of art flourished at Perga- 
mus and Ephesus. To the former may be referred the celebrated Dying 
Gladiator in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, and to the latter the Borghese 
Gladiator in the Louvre. The well-known statue of Aphrodite at Florence, 
called the " Yenus de' Medici," also belongs to the same period. It was 
executed by an Athenian artist named Cleomenes, whose exact date is un- 
known, but who lived before the capture of Corinth, in B. c. 146. 

§ 8. When Greece began to fall into the hands of the Romans, the treas- 
ures of Greek art were conveyed by degrees to Rome, where ultimately 
a new school arose. The triumphs over Philip, Antiochus, the -3iltolians, 
and others, but, above all, the capture of Corinth, and, subsequently, the 
victories over Mithridates and Cleopatra, filled Rome with works of art. 
The Roman generals, the governors of provinces (as Verres), and finally 
the emperors, continued the work of spoliation ; * but so prodigious was 
the number of works of art in Greece, that, even in the second centuiy of 
the Christian era, when Pausanias visited it, its temples and other public 
buildings were still crowded with statues and paintings. 



* Nero aloue is said to have brought five hundred statues from Delphi, merely to adoru 
hb golden house. 

69 



546 HISTOKT OF fiKEECE. [Chap, XLVIII, 




AflZT' 
Bust of Aristotle. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

OBECIAN LITERATURE FROM THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAB 
TO THE LATEST PERIOD. 

^ 1. The Drama. The Middle Comedy. The New Comedy: Philemon, Menander. 
§ 2. Oratory. Circumstances which favored it at Athens. § 3. Its Sicilian Origin. 
^ 4. The Ten Attic Orators : Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isseus, Machines, 
Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hypereides, and Dinarchus. § 5. Athenian Philosophy ; Plato. 
§ 6. Sketch of his Philosophy. § 7. The Megarics, Cyrenaics, and Cynics. ^ 8. The 
Academicians. § 9. Aristotle and the Peripatetics. § 10. The Stoics and Epicureans. 
4 11. The Alexandrian School of Literature. § 12. Later Greek Writers: Polybius, 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, Appian, Plutarch, Josephus, Stra- 
bo, Pausanias, Dion Cassius, Lucian, Galen. ^ 13. The Greek Scriptures and P'athers. 
Conclusion. 

§ 1. In reviewing the preceding period of Greek literature, we have al- 
ready had occasion to notice the decline of tragedy at Athens. It contin- 
ued, indeed, still to subsist ; but after the great tragic triumvirate, we have 
no authors who have come down to us, or whose works were at all com- 
parable to those of their predecessors. There are, however, a few names 
that should be recorded ; as that of Agathon, the contemporary and friend of 
Euripides, whose compositions were more remarkable for their flowery ele- 
gance than for force or sublimity : of lophon, the son of Sophocles, whose 
undutiful conduct towards his father has been already mentioned, the au- 
thor of fifty tragedies, which gained considerable reputation : of Sophocles, 
the grandson of the great tragic poet : and of a second Euripides, the 
nephew of the celebrated one. With regard to comedy the case was diifer- 
ent. After the days of Aristophanes it took, indeed, a wholly different 
form ; but a form which rendered it a more perfect imitation of nature, 
and established it as the model of that species of composition in every civ- 
ilized nation of after times. We have already noticed, in the plays of Aris- 
tophanes himself, a transition from the genuine Old Comedy to the Middle 



Chap. XLVIII.] THE DRAMA. 547 

Comedy. The latter still continued to be in some degree political ; but 
persons were no longer introduced upon the stage under their real names, 
and the office of the chorus was very much curtailed. It was, in fact, the 
connecting link between the Old Comedy and the New, or the Comedy of 
Manners. The most distinguished authors of the Middle Comfedy, besides 
Aristophanes, were Antiphanes and Alexis. The New Comedy arose 
after Athens had become subject to the Macedonians. Politics were now 
excluded from the stage, and the materials of the dramatic poet were de- 
rived entirely from the fictitious adventures of persons in private life. 
The two most distinguished writers of this school were Philemon and Me- 
nander. Philemon was probably born about the year 360 b. c, and was 
either a Cilician or Syracusan, but came at an early age to Athens. He 
is considered as the founder of the New Comedy, which was soon after- 
wards brought to perfection by his younger contemporary, Menander. 
Philemon was a prolific author, and is said to have written ninety-seven 
plays, of which only a few fragments remain. Menander was an Athenian, 
and was born in b. c. 342. Diopeithes, his father, commanded the Athe- 
nian forces on the Hellespont, and was the person defended by Demos- 
thenes in one of his extant speeches.* Menander was handsome in per- 
son, and of a serene and easy temper, but luxurious and effeminate in his 
habits. Demetrius Phalereus was his friend and patron. He was 
drowned at the age of fifty-two, whilst swimming in the harbor of Peiraeus. 
He wrote upwards of one hundred comedies ; yet during his lifetime his 
dramatic cai'eer was not so successful as his subsequent fame would seem 
to imply ; and he gained the prize only eight times. The broader humor 
of his rival Philemon seems to have told with more effect on the popular 
ear. But the unanimous praise of posterity made ample compensation 
for this injurious neglect, and awakens our regret for the loss of the works 
of one of the most elegant writers of antiquity. The number of his frag- 
ments, collected from the writings of various authors, shows how extensively 
he was read ; but unfortunately none are of sufficient length to convey tr 
us an adequate idea of his style and genius. The comedies, indeed, of 
Plautus and Terence may give us a general notion of the New Comedy 
of the Greeks, from which they were confessedly drawn ; but there is good 
reason to suppose that the works even of the latter Roman writer fell far 
short of the wit and elegance of Menander. 

§ 2. The latter days of literary Athens were chiefly distinguished by 
the genius of her orators and philosophers. Both rhetoric and philosophy 
were at first cultivated exclusively by the sophists, and, till the time olf 
Socrates, remained almost entirely in their hands. Socrates, by directing 
the attention of philosophers to the more useful questions of morals, effected 
a separation between rhetoric and philosophy. After his time we find 



* Uepl Tcov iv Xeptrovfjo-^. 



548 * HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL VIII 

various schools of moral philosophy springing up, as the Academicians 
Peripatetics, Stoics, &c., whilst the more technical part of the art of speak- 
ing became a distinct profession. 

The extreme democratical nature of the Athenian institutions, especially 
after the reforms of Pericles, rendered it indispensable for a public man to 
possess some oratorical skill. All public business, both political and judi- 
cial, was transacted by the citizens themselves, in their courts and public 
assemblies. The assembly of the people decided all questions, not only 
of domestic policy, but even those which concerned their foreign relations. 
They not only made, but administered, the laws ; and even their courts of 
justice must be regarded as a sort of public assemblies, from the number 
of dicasts who composed them. The vast majority of those who met either 
in the public assemblies or in the courts of justice were men of no political 
or legal training.* The Athenian citizen was a statesman and a judge by 
prerogative of birth. Although he took an oath to decide according to 
the laws, he was far from considering himself bound to make them his 
study, or to decide according to their letter. The frequency and earnest- 
ness with which the orators remind the dicasts of their oath betray their 
apprehension of its violation. It contained, indeed, a very convenient 
claQse for tender consciences, as it only bound the dicast to decide ac- 
cording to the best of his judgment ; and the use which might be made 
of this loophole by a clever advocate is pointed out by Aristotle.f Hence 
it is surprising how little influence the written code had on the decision 
of a case. The orators usually drew their topics from extraneoue circum- 
stances, or from the general character of their adversary, and endeavored 
to prejudice the minds of their audience by personal reflections wholly 
foreign to the matter in hand, and which modern courts would not tolerate 
for a moment. In addition to all this, the natural temperament of the 
Athenians rendered them highly susceptible of the charms of eloquence. 
They enjoyed the intellectual gladiatorship of two rival orators, and even 
their mutual reproaches and abuse. 

§ 3. It is remarkable, however, that, though the soil of Attica was thus 
naturally adapted to the cultivation of eloquence, the first regular profes- 
sors of it, as an art, were foreigners. Protagoras of Abdera, who visited 
Athens in the earher part of the fifth century before Christ, was the first 
who gave lessons in rhetoric for money. He was followed by Prodicus of 
Ceos, and Gorgias of Leontini ; the latter of whom especially was very 
celebrated as a teacher of rhetoric. The art, however, had been established 
in Sicily before the time of Gorgias by Corax and his pupil Tisias. Co- 

* This is not strictly con-ect. The Athenian had a practical training, both in law and 
polities, in the actual working of the civil and judicial institutions; and long before he had 
reached the legal age to take a personal part in public affairs, he was generally quite fa 
miliar both with principles and forms. — Ed. 

' Rhetoric, 1. 15. 5. 



Chap. XL VIII.] ATHENIAN ORATORY. 549 

rax lias been regarded as the founder of technical oratory, and was at all 
events the first who wrote a treatise on the subject. The appearance of 
Gorgias at Athens, whither he went as ambassador from Leontini, in 427 
B. C, produced a great sensation among the Athenians, who retained him 
in their city for the purpose of profiting by his instructions. His lectures 
were attended by a vast concourse of persons, and attracted many from 
the schools of the philosophers. His merit must have been very great to 
have drawn so much attention in the best times of Athens ; and we are 
told by Cicero that he alone of all the sophists was honored with a golden, 
and not merely a gilt, statue at Delphi. 

§ 4. The Athenians had established a native school of eloquence a little 
before the appeai-ance of Gorgias among them. The earliest of their 
professed orators was Antiphon (born b. c. 480), who stands at the head 
of the ten contained in the Alexandrian canon. Gorgias seems to have 
been known at Athens by his works before he appeared there in person ; 
and one of the chief objects of Antiphon was to establish a more solid 
style in place of his dazzling and sophistical rhetoric. Thucydides was 
among the pupils in the school which he opened, and is said to have owed 
much to his master. Antiphon was put to death in 41 1 b. c, for the part 
which he took in establishing the oligarchy of the Four Hundred. Fif- 
teen of his orations have come down to us. 

The remaining nine Attic orators contained in the Alexandrian canon 
were Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isteus, -^schines, Lycurgus, Demos- 
thenes, Hypereides, and Dinarchus. Andocides, who has been already 
mentioned as concerned with Alcibiades in the affair of the Hermge,* was 
born at Athens in b. c. 467, and died probably about 391. We have at 
least three genuine orations of his, which, however, are not distinguished 
by any particular merit. 

Lysias, also born at Athens in 458, was much superior to him as an 
orator, but being a metic, or resident alien, he was not allowed to speak 
in the assemblies or courts of justice, and therefore wrote orations for 
others to deliver. Of these thirty-five are extant, but some are incom- 
plete, and others probably spurious. His style may be regarded as a 
model of the Attic idiom, and liis orations are characterized by indescrib- 
able gracefulness, combined with energy and power. 

Isocrates was born in 436. After receiving the instructions of some 
of the most celebrated sophists of the day, he became himself a speech- 
writer and professoi'of rhetoric; his weakly constitution and natural ti- 
midity preventing him from taking a part himself in public life. His style 
is more periodic than that of the other Attic orators, and betrays that it 
was meant to be read rather than spoken. Although pure and elegant, 
it is wanting in simplicity and vigor, and becomes occasionally monotonous, 

* See p. 313. 



550 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap XLVIII. 

through the recurrence of the same turns. Isocrates made away with 
himseh'in 338, after the fatal battle of Chajronea, in despair, it is said, of 
his country's fate. Twenty-one of his speeches have come down to us. 
He took great pains with his compositions, and is reported to have spent 
ten, or, according to others, fifteen years over his Panegyric oration. 

Isa3us, according to some, was a native of Chalcis ; others call him au 
Athenian ; and it is certain, at all events, that he came at a very early 
age to Athens. His exact date is not known, but he flourished between 
the end of the Peloponnesian war and the accession of Philip of Macedon. 
He opened a school of rhetoric at Athens, and is said to have numbered 
Demosthenes among his pupils. The orations of Isaius were exclusively 
judicial, and the whole of the eleven which have come down to us turn 
on the subject of inheritances. 

Of -iEschines, the antagonist of Demosthenes, we have already had oc- 
casion to speak. He was born in the year '389, and was a native of Attica, 
but of low, if not servile, origin, and of a mother of more than equivocal 
reputation. This, however, is the account of Demosthenes ; and ^s- 
chines himself tells a different story. He was successively an assistant 
in his father's school, a gymnastic teacher, a scribe, and an actor; for 
which last profession a strong and sonorous voice peculiarly qualified him. 
He afterwards entered the army, where he achieved moi'e success ; for 
besides a vigorous, athletic form, he was endowed with considerable cour- 
age. The reputation wliich he gained in the battle of Tamynge encour- 
aged him to come forwards as a public speaker. As a politician he was 
at first a violent anti-Macedonian ; but after his embassy along with De- 
mosthenes and others to Philip's court, he was the constant advocate oi 
peace. Demosthenes and vEschines now became the leading speakers ob 
their respective sides, and the heat of political animosity soon degenerated 
into personal hatred. In 343, Demosthenes charged ^schines with hav- 
ing received bribes from Philip during a second embassy ; and the speech, 
or rather pamphlet,* — for it was not spoken, — in which he brought for- 
ward this accusation, was answered in another by ^schines. The result 
of this charge is unknown, but it seems to have detracted from the poj^u- 
larity of ^^^schines. We have already adverted to his impeachment of 
Ctesiphon, and the celebrated reply of Demosthenes in his speech De Co- 
rona.f After the banishment of JEschines on this occasion (b. c. 330), 
he spent several years in Ionia and Caria, where he employed himself in 
teaching rhetoric. After the death of Alexander he retired to Rhodes, 
and established a school of eloquence, which afterM'ards became very cele- 
brated, and which held a middle place between Attic simplicity on the 
Dne hand, and the ornate Asiatic style on the other. He died in Samoa 
in 314. As an orator he was second only to Demosthenes. He nevei 

* riept irapaTrpea-ISeias. f See pp. 515, 516. 



Chap. XLVIIL] DEMOSTHENES. 551 

published more than three of his speeches, which have come down to us ; 
namely, that against Timarchus, that on the Embassy, and the one against 
Ctesiphon. 

Of the life of his great rival, Demosthenes, we have already given some 
account, and need therefore only speak here of his literary merits. The 
verdict of his contemporaries, ratified by posterity, has pronounced De- 
mosthenes the greatest orator that ever lived. The principal element 
of his success must be traced in his purity of pui'pose, which gave to his 
arguments all the force of conscientious conviction ; and which, when 
aided by a powerful logic, jjerspicuous arrangement, and the most un- 
daunted courage in tearing the mask from the pretensions of his adversa- 
ries, i-endered his advocacy almost irresistible. The effect of his speeches 
was still further heightened by a wonderful and almost magic force ol 
diction. It cannot, however, be supposed that his orations were delivered 
in exactly that perfect form in which we now possess them. There can 
be no doubt that they were carefully revised for publication ; but, on the 
other hand, any tritling defects in form and composition must have been 
more than compensated by the grace and vivacity of oral delivery. This 
is attested by the well-known anecdote of -^schines, when he read at 
Rhodes his speech against Ctesiphon. His audience having expressed 
their surprise that he should have been defeated after such an oration : 
" You would cease to wonder," he remarked, " if you had heard Demos- 
thenes." Sixty-one of the orations of Demosthenes have come down to 
us ; though of these some are spurious, or at all events doubtful. The 
most celebrated of his political orations are the Philippics, the Olynthiacs, 
and the oration on the Peace ; among the private ones, the famous speech 
on the Crown. 

The remaining three Attic orators, viz. Lycurgus, Hypereides, and 
Dinarchus, were contemporaries of Demosthenes. Lycurgus and Hyper- 
eides both belonged to the anti-Macedonian party, and were warm sup- 
porters of the policy of Demosthenes. Of Lycurgus only one oration is 
extant ; and of Hypereides only two, which have been recently discovered 
in a tomb in Egypt. Dinarchus, who is the least important of the Attic 
orators, survived Demosthenes, and was a friend of Demetrius Phalereus. 
He was an opponent of Demosthenes, against whom he delivered one of 
his three extant orations, in relation to the affair of Harpalus.* 

§ 5. Whilst Attic oratory was thus attaining perfection, philosophy was 
making equal progress in the new direction marked out for it by Socrates. 
Of all the disciples of that original and truly great philosopher, Plato was 
by far the most distinguished. Plato was born at Athens in 429 B. c, 
the year in which Pericles died. By Ariston, his father, he was said to 
be descended from Codrus, the last of the Athenian kings ; whilst the 

* See pp. 516, 517. 



552 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVIH 

family of his mother traced a relationship with Solon. His own name 
which was originally Aristocles, is said to have been changed to Plato on 
account of the breadth of his shoulders.* He was instructed in music, 
grammar, and gymnastics, by the most celebrated masters of the time. 
His first literary attempts were in epic, lyric, and dithyrambic poetry; 
but his attention was soon turned to philosophy by the teaching of Socrates, 
whose lectures he began to frequent at about the age of twenty. From 
that time till the death of Socrates he appears to have lived in the closest 
intimacy with that philosopher. Afler that event Plato withdrew to 
Megara, and subsequently undertook some extensive travels, in the course 
of which he visited Cyrene, Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Grsecia. His in- 
tercourse with the elder Dionysius at Syracuse has been already related.f 
His absence from Athens lasted about twelve years ; on his return, being 
then upwards of forty, he began to teach in the gymnasium of the Academy, 
and also in his garden at Colonus. His instructions were gratuitous, and 
his method, like that of his master, Socrates, seems to have been by inter- 
rogation and dialogue. His doctrines, however, were too recondite for 
the popular ear, and his lectures were not very numerously attended. But 
he had a narrower circle of devoted admirers and disciples, consisting of 
about twenty-eight persons, who met in his private house ; over the vesti- 
bule of which was inscribed, " Let no one enter who is ignorant of ge- 
ometry." The most distinguished of this little band of auditors were Speu- 
sippus, his nephew and successor, and Aristotle. But even among the 
wider circle of his hearers, who did not properly form part of his school, 
were some of the most distinguished men of the age, as Chabrias, Iphic- 
rates, Timotheus, Phocion, and others. Wliether Demosthenes attended 
his lectures is doubtful. In these pursuits the remainder of his long life 
was spent, relieved, however, by two voyages to Sicily.J He died in 347, 
at the age of eighty-one or eighty-two, and bequeathed his garden to his 
school. 

§ 6. Plato must be regarded principally as a moral and political philos- 
opher, and* as a dialectician ; as a physical inquirer he did not shine, and 
the TimcBUS is his only work in that branch of philosophy. His dialectic 
method was a development of that of Socrates ; and though he did not, 
like Aristotle, produce any formal treatise on the subject, it is exemplified 
in most of his works, but especially in the Thegetetus, Sophistes, Parmeni- 
des, and one or two others of the same class. The fundamental principle 
of Plato's philosophy is the belief in an eternal and self-existent cause, 
the origin of all things. From this divine being emanate not only the 
souls of men, which are also immortal, but that of the universe itself, which 
is supposed to be animated by a divine spirit. The material objects of 
•>ur sight and other senses are mere fleeting emanations of the divine idea ; 

* ifKarvs. t See p. 457. % See pp. 458, 459. 



Chap. XL VIII.] PLATO. 553 

it is only this idea itself that is really existent ; * the objects of sensuous 
perception f are mere appearances, taking their forms by participation % 
in the idea. Hence it follows that in Plato's view all knowledge is innate, 
and acquired by the soul before birth, when it was able to contemplate 
real existences, and all our ideas in this world are mere reminiscences of 
their true and eternal patterns. These principles, when applied to the 
investigation of language, necessarily made Plato a realist ; that is, he held 
that an abstract name, expressing a genus, — as, for instance, mankind, 
comprehending all individual men, tree, comprehending every species of 
tree, and so forth, — were not mere signs to express our modes of thinking, 
but denoted real existences, in fact the only true existences, as being the 
expressions of the eternally pre-existent idea. In this matter he seems 
to have departed from Socrates ; and, indeed, the reader who should seek 
the philosophy of Socrates in the writings of Plato would often be led 
very far astray. Socrates believed in a divine cause, but the doctrine of 
ideas and other figments with which Plato surrounded it seem to have 
been his own. 

As a moral and political philosopher the views of Plato were sublime 
and elevated, but commonly too much tinged with his poetical and some- 
what visionary cast of mind to be of much practical utility. They are 
speculations which may awake our admiration as we read them, but which 
for the most part it would be difficult or impossible to put in practice. 
His belief in the immortality of the soul natui-ally led him to establish a 
lofty standard of moral excellence, and, like his great teacher, he con- 
stantly inculcates tempei-ance, justice, and purity of life. His political 
views are developed in the Republic and the Laws. The former of these 
works presents us witli a sort of Utopia, such as never has existed, and 
never could exist. The main feature of his system is the subordination, 
or rather the entire sacrifice, of the individual to the state. The citizens 
are divided into three classes, in fanciful analogy with, the faculties of the 
soul. Thus the general body, or working class, represents the passions 
and appetites ; the will is typified by the military order, which is to con- 
trol the general mass, but which is in turn to be thoroughly subservient 
to the government, whose functions correspond with those of the intellect, 
or rational faculty. With such views Plato was naturally inimical to the 
unrestricted democracy of Athens, and inclined to give a preference to 
the Spartan constitution. In the Laws, however, he somewhat relaxed 
the theory laid down in the Republic, and sought to give it a more 
practical character. Thus he abandons in that work the strict sepa- 
ration of classes, sets some limits to the power of the government, and 
attempts to reconcile freedom and absolutism by mingling monarchy with 
democracy. 

* TO QVTOiS ot>. f TO, yvyvofitva. % fikBe^is. 

70 



554 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XL VIII 

§ 7. Plato, as we have said, visited Megara after the death of Socrates, 
where other pupils of that philosopher had also taken refuge. Among 
these the most famous was Eucleides, who must not be confounded with 
the great mathematician of Alexandria. Eucleides founded the sect called 
from his residence the Megaric, and which, from the attention they paid 
to dialectics, were also entitled Dialectici and Eristici (or the Disputatious). 
Two other offshoots of the Socratic school were the Cyrenaics and Cynics. 
The former of these sects was founded by Aristippus of Cyrene in Africa, 
the latter by Antisthenes. Aristippus, though a hearer of Socrates, wan- 
dered far from the precepts of his great master. He was fond of luxurious 
living and sensual gratifications, which he held to be shameful only when 
they obtained so uncontrolled an empire over a man as to render him their 
entire slave. His chief maxim was to discover the art of extracting pleas- 
ure from all the circumstances of life, and to make prosperity and adversity 
alike subservient to that end. Such tenets' made him a favorite with the 
clever and cultivated man of the world, and we find him more than once 
approvingly alluded to by Horace.* Antisthenes was an Athenian, and 
also a pupil of Socrates. He taught in the Cynosarges, a gymnasium at 
Athens designed for Athenian boys born of foreign mothers, which is said 
to have been his own case. It was from this gymnasium that the sect he 
founded was called the Cynic, though some derive the name from their 
dog-like habits, which led them to neglect all the decent usages of society. 
It was one of the least important of the philosophical schools. One of 
its most remarkable members was Diogenes of Sinope, whose interview 
with Alexander the Great at Corinth we have had occasion to relate.f 
No writings of any of the three last-mentioned sects have survived. 

§ 8. Such were the most celebrated minor schools which sprang from 
the teaching of Socrates. The four principal schools were the Academi- 
cians, who owed their origin to Plato ; the Peripatetics, founded by his 
pupil Aristotle ; the Ejncureans, so named from their master Epicurus ; 
and the Stoics, founded by Zeno. 

Speusippus, Plato's nephew, became the head of the Academy after his 
uncle's death. Under him and his immediate successoi-s, as Xenocrates, 
Polemon, Crates, and Ci-antor, the doctrines of Plato were taught with 
little alteration, and these professors formed what is called the Old Academy. 
The Middle Academy begins with Arcesilaus, who flourished towards the 
close of the third century b. c., and who succeeded to the chair on the 



* " Nunc in Aristippi furtim prsecepta relabor 
Et mihi res non me rebus subjungere conor." 

Hoe. Ep. i. 1. 18. 
And again; — 

" Omnis Aristippum decuit color et status et res." 

Ibid. 17. 23. 



f See p. 492. 



Chap. XLVIIL] ACADEIIICIANS. — ^ I'kripatktios. 555 

death of Grantor. Under him the doctrines of tlie Academy uiiilerwent 
some moditication. He appears to liave directed his inquiries almost ex- 
clusivelj to an investigation of the grounds of knowledge, and to have 
approached in some degree the. Pyrrhonists or Sceptics. The Platonic 
doctrines suffered a further change in the hands of Carneades, the founder 
of the New Academy. Carneades flourished towards the middle of the 
second century B. c. Under him doubt and hesitation began still more 
strongly to characterize the teaching of the ^*latonists. His distinguish- 
ing tenet was an entire suspension of assent, on the gi'ound that ti-uth has 
always a certain degree of error combined with it; and so far did he 
carry this principle, that even Clitomachus, his most intimate puj)!!, could 
never discover his master's real tenets on any subject. 

§ 9. But of all the Grecian sects, that of the Peripatetics, founded by 
Aristotle, had the greatest influence, so far as the reseai-ches of the intellect 
are concerned ; and this not merely in antiquity, but even perhaps tp a 
still greater extent in modern times, and especially during what are called 
the Middle Ages. Aristotle was born in 3<S4 b. c, at Staglra, a sea-})oi't 
town of Chalcidice, whence he is frequently called the Stagirite. Hig 
father, Nicomachus, was physician to Amyntas H., king of Macedonia. 
At the age of seventeen, Aristotle, who had then lost both father and 
mother, repaired to Athens. Here he received the instructions of Hera- 
cleldes Ponticus, and other Soei'atics ; and when, about three years after 
his arrival at Athens, Plato returned to that city, Aristotle immediately 
attended his lectures. Plato considered him his best scholar, and called 
him " the intellect of his school." Aristotle spent twenty years at Athens, 
during the last ten of which he established a school of his own ; but 
during the whole period he appears to have kept up his connection with 
the Macedonian court. On the death of Plato, in 347, Aristotle (|uitted 
Athens, and repaired to Atarneus, in Mysia, where he resided two or 
three years with Hermias, a fomaer pupil, who had made himself dynast 
of that city and of Assos, and whose adopted daughter he married. 
Atarneus being threatened by the Persians, into whose hands llermijis 
had fallen, Aristotle escaped with his wife to Mytilene, and in 342 
accepted the invitation of Philip of Macedon to undertake the instruc- 
tion of his son Alexander. Philip treated the philosopher with the 
greatest respect, and at his request caused the city of Stagira to be rebuilt, 
which had been destroyed in the Olynthian war. It was here, in a gym- 
nasium called the Nymphteum, that Aristotle imi)arted his insti'uctions to 
Alexander, as well as to several other noble youths. In 335, after Alex- 
ander had ascended the throne, Aristotle quitted Macedonia, to which he 
never returned. He again took up liis abode at Athens, where his fi'iend 
Xenocrates was now at the head of the Academy. To Aristotle himself 
the Athenians assigned the gymnasium called the Lyceum ; and from his 
habit of delivering his lectures whilst walking up and down in the shady 



556 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVIII. 

walks of tliis place, his school was called the peripatetic* In the 
morning he lectured only to a select class of pupils, called esoteric,'\ and 
these lectures were called acroamatic,X in contradistinction to being 
written and published. His afternoon lectures were delivered to a wider 
circle, and were thcKcfore called exoteric.% His method appears to have 
been that of a regular lecture, and not the Socratic one of question and 
answer. It was during the thirteen years in which he presided over the 
Lyceum that he composed* the greater part of his works, and prosecuted 
his researches in natural history, in which he was most liberally assisted 
by the munificence of Alexander. The latter portion of Aristotle's life 
was unfortunate. He appears to have lost from some unknown cause the 
friendship of Alexander; and, after the death of that monarch, the 
disturbances which ensued in Greece proved unfavorable to his peace and 
security. Being threatened with a prosecution for impiety, he escaped 
from Athens and retired to Chalcis ; but he was condemned to death in 
his absence, and deprived of all the rights and honors which he previously 
enjoyed. He died at Chalcis in 322, in the sixty -third year of his age. 
In person Aristotle was short and slender, with small eyes, and something 
of a lisp. His manners were characterized by briskness and vivacity, and 
he paid considerable attention to his dress and outward appearance. 

Of all the philosophical systems of antiquity, that of Aristotle was best 
adapted to the practical wants of mankind. It was founded on a close and 
accurate observation of human nature and of the external world ; but 
whilst it sought the practical and useful, it did not neglect the beautiful 
and noble. His works consisted of treatises on natural, moral, and politi- 
cal philosophy, history, rhetoric, criticism, &c. ; indeed, there is scarcely a 
branch of knowledge which his vast and comprehensive genius did not 
embrace. Any attempt to give an account of these works would far 
exceed the limits of the present work. His greatest claim to our admira- 
tion is as a logician. He perfected and brought into form those elements of 
the dialectic art which had been struck out by Socrates and Plato, and 
wrought tliem by his additions into so complete a system, that he may be 
regarded as at once the founder and perfecter of logic as an art, which 
even down to our own days has been but very little improved. 

§ 10. The school of the Stoics was founded by Zeno, a native of Citium 
in the island of Cyprus. The exact date of Zeno's birth is uncertain ; 
but he seems to have gone to Athens about the beginning of the third cen- 
tury (h. C. 299) ; a visit which, according to some accounts, was owing to 
his having been shipwrecked in the neighborhood of Peirgeus. At Athens 

* From nepmaTelv, to walk about. Others, however, perhaps more correctly, derive it 
from the place itself being called 6 TrepinaTos, or the promenade. 
f iaarfpiKos, inner, intimate. 
t uKpoafiaTiKos, to be heard, i. e. communicated m-ally. § i^corepiKos, external. 



Chap. XLVIII.J STOICS. — EPICUREANS. 557 

he first attached himself to the Cynics, tlien to the Megarics, and lastly to 
the Academicians ; but after a long course of study he opened a school of 
his own in the Poecile Stoa, or painted porch, whence the name of his 
sect. The speculative doctrines of Zeno were not marked by much 
originality. He inculcated temperance and self-denial, and his practice 
was in accordance with his precepts. The want of reach in the Stoic 
tenets, wliich did not demand so much refined and abstract thought as 
those of many other sects, as well as the outward gravity and decorum 
which they inculcated, recommended their school to a large portion of 
mankind, especially among the Romans, by whom that sect and the Epi- 
curean were the two most universally adopted. Two of the most illustri- 
ous writers on the Stoic philosophy, whose works are extant, are Epicte- 
tus and the Emperor M. Aurelius. 

Epicurus was born at Samos in 342, of poor but respectable Athenian 
parents. He followed at first the profession of a schoolmaster, and, after 
spending some time in travelling, settled at Athens at about the age of 
thirty-five. Here he purchased a garden, apparently in the heart of the 
city, where he established his philosophical school. He seems to have 
been the only head of a sect who had not previously gone through 
a regular course of study, and prided himself on being self-taught. In 
physics he adopted the atomic theory of the Pythagoreans and Ionics ; 
in morals that of the Cyrenaic school, that pleasure is the highest good ; a 
tenet, however, which he explained and dignified by showing that it was 
mental pleasure that he intended. His works have perished, but the 
main substance, both of his physical and religious doctrines, may be 
derived from Lucretius, whose poem De Rerum Natura is an exposition of 
his principal tenets. The ideas of atheism and sensual degradation with 
which the name of Epicurus has been so frequently coupled are founded 
on ignorance of his real teaching. But as he denied the immortality of 
the soul, and the interference of the gods in human affairs, — though he 
held their existence, — his tenets were very liable to be abused by those 
who had not sufficient elevation of mind to love virtue for its own sake. 

§ 11. We have thus traced the progress of Grecian literature from its 
earliest dawn till it was brought to perfection by the master-minds of 
Athens. After the death of Alexander, Grecian literature did not be- 
come extinct : there was a vitality about it that insured its subsistence for 
several ages, though not in its former splendor. Alexandria, now the 
emporium of commerce, became also the chief seat of learning, where it 
was fostered by the munificence and favor of the first Ptolemies. It was 
here that literature became a profession, supported by the foundation of 
noble and extensive libraries, and cultivated by a race of grammarians 
and critics. These men were of great assistance to literature by the 
critical care which they bestowed on editions of the best authors, and by 



558 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVIII 

the invention of many aids to facilitate the labors of the student, 
as better systems of grammar, punctuation, &c. One of the most eminent 
of them was Aristophanes of Byzantium, chief librarian at Alexandria in 
the reigns of the second and third Ptolemies, and who founded there a 
school of grammar and criticism. It was he and his pupil Aristarchus who 
were chiefly concerned in forming the canon of the Greek classical 
writers ; and in their selection of authors they displayed for the most part 
a correct taste and a sound judgment. To Aristophanes is ascribed the 
invention of the Greek accents. Aristarchus is chiefly renowned as the 
editor of the Homeric poems in the form in which we now possess them. 
From their school proceeded many celebrated grammarians and lexicog- 
raphers. It must not, however, be supposed that this was the sole species 
of literature which flourished at Alexandria. Theocritus, the most charm- 
ing pastoral poet of antiquity, — of which • species of composition he was 
the inventor, — though a native of Syracuse, lived for some time at Alex- 
andria, where he enjoyed the patronage of Ptolemy II. His contempora- 
ries and imitators, Bion of Smyrna and Mosclius of Syracuse, also wrote 
with much grace and beauty. This school of poetry was afterwards culti- 
vated with success by Vu^gil, Tibullus, and others among the Romans. 
At Alexandria also flourished Callimachus, the author of many hymns, 
elegies, and other poems, which were much admired at Rome, and were 
translated and imitated by Catullus and Propertius. Amongst numerous 
other poets we can only mention Apollonius Rhodius, the author of an 
epic poem on the exploits of the Argonauts ; and Aratus, who composed 
two poems on astronomy and natural phenomena. Among the Alexan- 
drian writers on pure science, the mathematician Euclid (Eucleides) stands 
conspicuous, whose elements of geometry still form the text-book of our 
schools. He flourished during the time of the first Ptolemy (b. c. 323 — 
283). 

§ 12. The list of the Greek writers down to the extinction of the 
Greek empire miglit be indefinitely enlarged ; but our limits would only 
permit us to present the reader with a barren list of names ; and we 
therefore content ourselves with selecting for notice a few of the most 
eminent. 

The historian Polybius (b. c. 204- 122) has already been mentioned 
as taking a part in the final struggle of his country with Rome. His His- 
tory, though the greater part of it has unfortunately. perished, is one of the 
most valuable remains of antiquity. His long residence among the Ro- 
mans afforded him an opportunity of studying their annals ; and from 
the period of the second Punic war he has been very closely followed by 
Livy. 

Another Greek writer of Roman history was Dionysius of Halicarnas- 
6US, who flourished in the latter half of the first century b. c. He spent a 
considerable part of Ids life at Rome, and devoted liimself to the study of 



Chap. XLVIII.J later GREEK writers. 659 

the history and antiquities of that city, on which he wrote a book, a con- 
siderable part of which is still extant. He was, however, a better critic 
than historian, and we still possess several of his treatises in that depart- 
ment of Uterature. 

Diodorus, called from his country Siculus, or the Sicihan, also lived at 
Rome in the time of Julius and Augustus Caesar. He was the author of 
a universal history in forty books, called The Historical Library, of which 
fifteen books are still extant, 

Arrian, of Nicomedia in Bithynia, who lived in the first century of our 
era, wrote an account of Alexander's expedition, as well as several works 
on philosophical and other subjects. 

Appian of Alexandria lived in the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and An- 
toninus Pius, and was the author of a Roman history. 

One of the best and most valuable Greek writers of this time was Plu- 
tarch, the biographer and philosopher. He was a native of Chaeronea in 
Boeotia. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it must have been 
about the middle of the first century of our era. He passed a consider- 
able time in Rome and Italy ; but it was late in his life before he applied 
himself to the study of Roman literature, and he ajjpears never to have 
completely mastered the language. The later years of his life seem to 
have been spent at Chaeronea, where he discharged several magisterial 
offices, and filled a priesthood. His Lives, if not the most authoritative, 
are certainly one of the most entertaining works ever written. They 
have perhaps been more frequently translated than any other book, and 
have been popular in every age and nation. Besides his Lives, Plutarch 
was the author of a great number of treatises on moral and other subjects. 

About the same time flourished Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was 
born at Jerusalem A. d. 37. Though a Hebrew, the Greek style of Jo- 
sephus is remarkably pure. 

Strabo, the celebrated geographer, was a native of Amasia in Pontus, 
and lived in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. His valuable work on 
geography, which also contains many important historical facts, still exists 
pretty nearly entire, though the text is often corrupt. 

Pausanias, author of the Description of Greece, is supposed to have 
been a native of Lydia, and flourished in the second century of our era. 
His account of Greece is of considerable value, for many of the great 
works of Grecian art were extant when he travelled through the country, 
and he appears to have described them witli fidelity as well as minuteness. 

Dion Cassius, the historian, was born at Nicasa in Bithynia, A. P. 155. 
His History of Rome in eighty books extended from the earliest times to 
A. D. 229. It has come down to us in a very imperfect state, but is still 
a valuable authority for the history of the later republic and a considerable 
portion of the empire. 

Lucian, one of the wittiest and most entertaining of ancient writers, and 



^60 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLVIII. 

who, from his sparkling style, his turn of mind, and his disregard for au- 
thority, may be compared to Swift or Voltaire, was born at Samosata, 
probably about A. d. 120. Of his numerous works, the best known are 
his Dialogues of the Dead, which have been universally esteemed, not 
only for their wit, but also for their Attic grace of diction. 

We cannot close this imperfect list of Greek profane writerl without 
mentioning the name of Galen, the celebrated physician. Galen was born 
at Pergamus in Mysia, a. d. 130. He completed his education at Smyr- 
na, Corinth, and Alexandria, after which he undertook some extensive 
travels. He seems to have visited Rome at least twice, and attended on 
the Emperors M. Aurelius and L. Verus. Tlie writings of Galen formed 
an epoch in medical science, and after his time all the previous medical 
sects seem to have become merged in his followers and imitators. 

§ 13. But the Greek language was not merely destined to be the ve- 
hicle of those civilizing influences ■which flow from the imagination of" tlie 
sublimest poets and the reasonings of the most profound philosophers. 
The still more glorious mission was reserved for it, of conveying to man- 
kind through the Gospel that certain prospect of a life to come, which 
even the wisest of the Grecian sages had beheld only as in a glass,, darkly. 
Three at least of the four Gospels were written in the Greek tongue, as 
well as the greater portion of those Scriptures which compose the New 
Testament. "We have already alluded to the facilities which the con- 
quests of Alexander afforded to the spreading of the Gospel ; nor were 
there wanting in subsequent ages men who assisted its extension by their 
writings. Even the works of an author like Lucian were subservient to 
this end, by casting ridicule on the gods of paganism, and thus preparing 
the minds of men for the reception of a purer doctrine. Among the 
Greek Fathers of the Church were many men of distinguished talent ; as 
Justin Martyr, one of the earliest of the Christian writers, Clemens of 
Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, and many others ; especially 
Joannes, surnamed Chrysostomus, or the golden-mouthed, from the power 
of his eloquence. 

The Greek language and litei-ature continued to subsist till the taking 
of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. Even that shock did not entire- 
ly destroy their vitality. The many learned Greeks who then took refuge 
in Italy were the means of reviving the study of their tongue, then almost 
entirely neglected, in the West, and especially at Florence, under the au- 
spices of Cosmo de' Medici, who appointed Johannes Argyropulus, one of 
these refugees, preceptor to his son and nephew. Maximus Planudes, 
Manuel Moschopulus, Emanuel Chrysoloras, Theodore Gaza, and others, 
assisted in this work ; and through these men and their successors, and 
particularly through the labors of Aldus Manutius, the Venetian printer, 
who flourished in the same century, the chief masterpieces of Grecian lit- 
erature have been handed down and made mtelligible to us. 




The Acropolis of Athens in its present State. 

BOOK VII. 

GREECE FROM THE ROMAN CONQUEST TO 
THE PRESENT TIME. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

G-REECE UNDER THE ROMANS. 

§ 1. Roman Administration. § 2. Sylla, Mithridatic War. § 3. Cilician Pirates. § 4. State 
of Greece. § 5. Effects of the E=tnb!isliment of tlie Roman Empire. §6. Hndrian's Bene 
factions to Greece. Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Hcrodes Atticns, Caracalla. § 7. Goth 
ic Invasion. § 8. Language, Poetry, Christianity. § 9. Decay of Paganism. Populai 
Elements of Christianity. § lu. Ivuinun V'iew of Christianity. Triumph of Cl)risti:iiiity. 

§ 1. The Roman adinini.^tnitioa of Grcoce, commencing about the middle 
of the second centuiy li. C, was at first wise and moderate. The pubh'c 
burdens, instead of being increased, were lessened. Tlie local ad;ainis- 
trations and municipal institutions remained unchanged, so far as they 
were compatible with the exercise of su|)reme power by the Romans. 
The conquerors felt the superiority of tlie conquered in letters and art, 
and though-they had no profound appreciation of these excellent ornaments 
of the life of man, yet they at first conceded to the authors and cultivators 
of them a social esteem very flattering to the vanity of llie Hellenic race. 
In general, they paid respect to the religious feelings and the objects of 
worship, and the plundering of temples and robbing cities of cherished 
71 



562 HISTORY OF GREECE. [CnAP. XLIX. 

works of art — which afterwards became one of the most irritating forms 
of proconsular oppression — was looked upon with abhorrence by the hon- 
orable men at Rome. Polybius uses the "strongest language, when he 
speaks of the Roman honesty. Under their circumstances, as Mr. Finlay 
says, " Prudence and local interests would everywhere favor submission 
to Rome ; national vanity alone would whisper incitements to venture on a 
struggle for independence." 

§ 2. The Mithridatic war furnished the occasion on which the national 
vanity, concurring with the private inclinations of many leading men, in- 
duced the Greeks to make the attempt. Sylla was charged with the 
conduct of the war against the king of Pontus ; and when he appeared 
in Greece, at the head of a powerful army, Athens almost single-handed 
confronted him, — the others having submitted with as much lightness as 
they had taken up arms. Sylla laid siege to the city, and found it no 
easy task, with the whole force of his army, niul tlie abundant resources 
with which he was supplied, to reduce the fiery I'cpuljlicans, under the 
command of Aristion. At last, their material means of defence being ex- 
hausted, they resorted to a mode of proceeding quite characteristic of the 
Athenians, — they sent out some of their orators, to try what eloquence 
could do with the hard-headed Roman. Admitted to an audience, the 
spokesman began to remind the general of their past glory, and was proceed- 
ing to touch upon Marathon, when the surly soldier fiercely growled, " I 
was sent here to punish rebels, not to study history." And he did punish 
them. He broke down the wall between the Peirajus and the Sacred 
Gates, and poured in his soldiers to plunder and slay. With drawn swords 
they swept through the streets. The ground ran with blood, which poured 
its horrid tide into the ancient burying-place of the Cerameicus. Great 
numbers of the citizens were slain : their property was plundered by the 
soldiers. The groves of the Academy and the Lyceum were cut down ; and 
columns were carried away from the temple of Olympian Zeus, to ornament 
the city gf Rome. The town of Peirjeus was utterly destroyed, being treated 
with more sevei-ity than Athens itself From this frightful moment the 
decline of the population of Greece commenced. " Both parties," says 
the able historian already quoted, " during the Mithridatic war, inflicted 
severe injuries on Greece, plundered the country, and destroyed property 
most wantonly, while many of the losses were never repaired. The 
foundations of national prosperity were undermined : and it henceforward 
became impossible to save, from the annual consumption of the inhabitants, 
the sums necessary to replace the accumulated capital of ages, Avhich 
this short war had annihilated. In some cases the wealth of the com- 
munities became insufficient to keep the existing public works in repair." 

§ 3. Scarcely had the storm of Roman war passed by, when the Cilician 
pirates, finding the coasts of Greece peculiarly favorable for their maraud- 
ing incursions, and tempted by the wealth accumulated in the cities and 



B. C 30.] GRr.EK LIXr.RATURE AT ROME. 5C3 

temples, commenced their depredations on so gigantic a scale, that the Re- 
mans felt obliged to employ all their military force for theii- suppression. 
The exploits of Pompey the Great, who was clothed with autocratic 
power to put down this gigantic evil, fill the brightest chapter in the history 
of that celebrated but too unfortunate commander. He captured ninety 
brazen-decked ships, and took twenty thousand prisoners, with whom he 
repeopled the ancient town of Soli, which henceforth was called Porapei- 
opolis. The civil wars, in whicli the Roman Republic expired, had the 
fields of Greece for their theatre. Under the tramp of contending armies, 
her fertile plains were desolated, and civil blood, in a cause not her own, 
again and again moistened her soil. 

§ 4. But at length the civil wars have come to an end, and the Empire 
introduces, for the first time in the melancholy history of man, a state of 
universal peace. Greece still maintains her pre-eminence in literature and 
art ; and her schools are fi-equented by the sons of the Roman aristocracy. 
The elder poetry serves as models to the literary genius of the Augustan 
age. Horace copies Alcteus, and admires Sappho. Virgil copies Theocri- 
tus in his Eclogues, and the Iliad and Odyssey in his ^neid. The histo- 
rians form themselves on Attic prototypes ; and the philosophers of Rome 
divide themselves among the Grecian sects, while in Athens the Plato- 
nists, the Stoics, the Peripatetics, and the Epicureans still haunt the scenes 
with which the names of their masters were inseparably associated. The 
ancient spirit, which animated the breasts of the Greeks in the republican 
days, and which broke forth like an expiring gleam in Philopoemen and 
Polybius, had either vanished utterly from the hearts of the people, or 
had been smothered and oppressed into silence, by the evils of the times. 
The country was, however, still covered with splendid temples, and crowded 
with the works of art, — the productions of the best ages; — nor had the 
practice of art been entirely lost. But the ravages of war had left the 
most important cities in such a state, that, even in the tinie of Cicero, they 
suggested melancholy reflections to the most thoughtful minds. Says Sul- 
picius, in his letter of consolation to the great orator, " When I returned 
from Asia, and was sailing from ^gina towards Megara, I began to gaze 
upon the regions around me. Behind me lay -^gina ; before me, Megara; 
on my right, Peiraeus ; on my left, Corinth ; cities which once were most 
flourishing, but now overwhelmed, and in ruins." Such was the gen- 
eral aspect of that illustrious region even then ; but the great temples, 
whose ruins still astonish the traveller by their magnificence and melan- 
choly beauty, had suffered nothing from time and comparatively little from 
the hand of man. They were regarded, even by those who had no con- 
ception of the genius required for their construction, with a kind of awe 
and reverence. 

§ 5. The establishment of the Empire made but little change in the 
administration of Greece. Augustus indeed showed no great solicitude 



564 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIX 

except to maintain the country in subjection by his military colonies, — ■ 
especially those of Patrae and Nicopolis, — a policy first introduced by 
Julius Cfesar. He even deprived Athens of the privileges she had enjoyed 
under the Republic, and broke down the remaining power of Sparta, by 
declaring the independence of her subject towns. Some of his successors 
treated the country with favor, and endeavored by a clement use of power 
to mitigate the sufferings of its decline. Even Nero was proud to dis- 
play the extent of his musical abilities in the theatres, which had resounded 
with the compositions of the Greeks. He listened eagerly to their flat- 
teries, as they accompanied him from the city, received with complacency 
the eighteen hundred laurel crowns with which they decorated him, and 
when at last — in an excess of adulation which it is wonderful he did not 
suspect of satire — they styled him the Saviour of the Human Race, the 
musical monster repaid the compliment by declaring them free from tribute. 
The noble Trajan allowed them to retain their former local privileges, 
and did much to improve their condition by his wise and just administration. 
§ 6. Hadrian was a passionate lover of Greek art and literature. Athens 
especially received the amplest benefits from his taste and wealth. He 
finished the temple of Olympian Zeus ; established a public Ubrary ; built 
a pantheon and gymnasium ; rebuilt the temple of Apollo at Megara ; im- 
proved the old roads of Greece, and built new ones, and especially made 
the difficult highway into Peloponnesus, by the Scironian Rocks, passable 
for wheeled carriages. A part of it is still to be seen, running along these 
dangerous and lofty precipices, with the ruined masses of the immense. sub- 
struction which supported it. Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius showed 
good-will to Greece ; the latter rebuilt the temple at Eleusis, and improved 
the Athenian schools, raising the salaries of the teachers, and in various ways 
contributing to make Athens, as it had been before, the most illustrious 
seat of learning in the world. It was in the reign of this Emperor, in the 
second century of our era, that one of the greatest benefactors of Athens, 
and all Greece, lived, — Herodes Atticus, distinguished ahke by his wealth, 
learning, and eloquence. Born at Marathon, within sight of the spot where 
the Persian hosts were defeated ; educated at Athens by the best teachers 
his father's wealth could procure, he became, on going to Rome, which he 
did in early life, the rhetorical teacher of Marcus Aurelius himself. An- 
toninus Pius bestowed on him the dignity of the consulship ; but he pre- 
ferred the career of a teacher at Athens, to the higher political dignities 
which imperial favor placed within his reach ; and he was followed thither 
by young men of the most eminent Roman families, from the emperors 
down. Later he withdrew from Athens to Cephissia, a town about eight 
miles distant, where he built a magnificent villa, adorned with porticos, 
walks, groves, and fountains, traces of which still remain. At Athens he 
built the Stadium, lined with Pentelic marble, whose enormous dimensions, 
south of the Ilissus, testify to the magnificence and liberality of this prmcely 



A. D. 267] GOTHIC INVASION. 565 

citizen; and the theatre of Regilla,- — so named in honor of his wife, — at 
the southwest angle of the Acropohs, the walls, arches, and seats of which 
are to a great extent still remaining, though the interior is encumbered 
with the accumulated rubbish of sixteen centui-ies ; at Corinth he built a the- 
atre, at Olympia an aqueduct, at Delphi a race-course, and at Thermop- 
yla3 a hospital. Peloponnesus, Euboea, Boeotia, and Epeirus experi(;nced 
his bounty ; and even Italy was not forgotten in the lavish distribution of 
his wealth. He died in A. D. 180. The grateful citizens of Athens would 
not allow his body to be buried at Marathon, as he had desii'ed, but insisted 
on bestowing upon his remains every honor in their power to devise. His 
praises were commemorated in a funeral discourse by his friend and pupil, 
Adrianus, of whose genius Herodes had expressed himself in the strongest 
terms of admiration. Of the numerous literary works left by this illus- 
trious citizen, whose character and genius gild the declining days of Athens, 
nothing has been preserved; but few have left so many traces of their 
public spirit and liberality in the land of their birth. The frantic Cara- 
calla, early in the third century, pursued by the avenging demons of those 
he had murdered, yet did one good deed in clothing the free inhabitants of 
the provinces with the rights of Roman citizenship : " but the moral sup- 
ports," says Finlay, '• of the old framework of society were destroyed 
before the edict of Caracalla had emancipated Greece ; and when tran- 
quillity arrived, they were only capable of enjoying the felicity of having 
been forgotten by the tyrants." 

§ 7. About the middle of the third century, the Gothic hordes began to 
appear on the northern frontiers of Greece. A few years later they ci'ossed 
the Hellespont and ^gean, and descended upon the coasts of Attica. Dis- 
embarking at the Peiri^us, they marched upon Athens, which was bravely 
but unsuccessfully defended by Dexippus,* wlio added the abilities of a 



* I am sorry we have so few traces of this schohir warrior. He did not let the Goths 
escape with impunity; but, rallying his followers in a grove near the city, addressed them 
in an animatino; haran2;ue, of which the following sentences are all that is preserved. 

" Bravery, and not the number of combatants, governs the issue of war. Our force is still 
considerable. Our army numbers two thousand warriors; our position is concealed. From 
this spot we must attack tlie enemy when they disperse over the country. So will victory 
inspire us with new vigor, and fill our invaders with terror. If we meet them in open fight, 
remember that courage mounts with danger. Victory comes unlooked for in the hour of need 
and in battle for all that is dearest, when the soldier is animated with the hope of revenge. 
And who have a juster cause of vengeance than we, who see our families and our city at 
the mercy of the foe? I am resolved to share your fate, to fight boldly for all we most 
prize on earth ; and be assured I will take care that through me the glory of Athens shall 
never be dishonored. It becomes us to retuember the deeds of our fathers; to shine forth an 
example of bravery and freedom to the other Greeks; and to secure for ourselves, among the 
present and future generations, the imperishable renown of having shown by our actions that 
the courage of the Athenians remains unbroken, even in adversity. We march to battle 
to redeem our children, and all we hold most dear. May the gods be our support." 

The army received his words in a transport of enthusiasm, and demanded to be led to 
instant battle. We have no clear account of what followed; but it appears, tliat, after the 



566 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. XLIX 

general to the accomplishments of the scholar and philosopher. Athena 
was subjected to the plunder of the savages. It is related by Zonaras, 
"that one of the Gothic chiefs, finding a party of his soldiers on the 
point of burning the libraries of Athens, having collected the books in a 
pile, told them to leave those things to the effeminate Greeks ; for the 
hand accustomed to the smoothness of the papyrus would but feebly grasp 
the brand of the warrior." Happy influence of letters, which, had it uni- 
ver?;ally prevailed, would have saved the earth from becoming the dreadful 
slaughter-house it has been in every age, and seems likely to be again 
in ours. 

§ 8. The language of Greece, no longer existing under the forms of 
numerous dialects, all in their several countries, and in special depart- 
ments of literature, of equal classical authority, had become, under the 
designation of the later Attic, or Hellenistic, the medium of political com- 
munication and literary composition throughout the Eastei-n World. In- 
tellectual activity in Egypt, where the institutions of the Ptolemies were 
respected by the Roman Emperors, assumed a motley aspect among the 
philosophic and Oriental systems and jargons, which concentrated, in an 
{istonishing medley, in that land of pyramids and hieroglyphics. Of the 
poetical names which shine with mild lustre here, we have Callimachus, 
the author of hymns, and Theocritus, the pastoral poet, whose naive Sicil- 
ian Doric still charms the student more than the stately imitations of Vir- 
gil ; Apollonius, the Rhodian ; Lycophron, chiefly famous for his unintel- 
ligibility, whose sixty tragedies have not come down to us. Christianity 
was early preached, and churches established, not only among the Greeks 
of Asia Minor, but on the continent of Greece, as appears both by the 
early history of the religion, and by the apostolic documents themselves. 
The most memorable passage in apostolic history is beyond all compari- 
son the appearance of St. Paul at Athens, and the discourse he delivered 
to the philosophers, who courteously invited him up the Hill of Mai's, — 
the most sacred and venerable spot, from the mythical times, down to 
the latest days of Attic splendor, and in our own times. The Greeks, 
tliouoh some of them found the preaching of the Apostles foolishness, were 
in many respects morally and intellectually susceptible to its influences. 
Some of the elder thinkers liad reasoned out the great peculiar doctrines 
of Cliristianity. Plato, looking upon the sorrowful and fallen condition of 
man, had felt the want of a divine being to raise him up and restore him 
to the lost dignity of his nature. Socrates, his master, had reflected upon 
the immortality of the soul, and the joys of a better life to come, until 
these sublime truths assumed a clearness and consistency which nerved 

barbarians had sated themselves with the plunder of the city, they found some difficulty 
in escaping to their ships, or hurrying to the North. Those who went by land rushed 
tninuttuousiy through Boeotia, Acarnania, Thessaly, and P^peirus, spreading terror and 
lestruction wherever they appeared. 



Chap. XLIX.] Christianity in Greece. 567 

him to meet the felon's death an unjust sentence had doomed him to suifer ,• 
and just as lie was about to drink the fatal hemlock, he declared the memo- 
rable Christian doctrine, that it was better to forgive injuries than to avenge 
them. The tenderness and humanity of the Christian faith found an echo 
in the Grecian heart ; and a sentiment deeper than curiosity — though 
that mingled largely in the emotions of the hour — secured to the great 
Apostle the respectful attention of the most cultivated audience he ever 
addressed. Philosophy had strengthened the great minds of Greece, and 
the most accomplished intellects of Rome, but still had left an aching void 
in the heart. No doubt, when death parted families, bereaving the parent 
of the hope and the charm of life, or leaving tender children orphans in a 
desolate world, the sunshine of nature lighted the universe in vain for their 
sorrowing spirits, and the theories of philosophy fell far short of that 
blessed, assurance which alone can soothe the agony of the dark hour. 
In this period, also, the belief in the ancient divinities must have died out 
in nearly every thinking mind. The glory of the nation had suffered 
an eclipse, from which the gods of Olympus had been powerless to save. 
Private life had been overwhelmed with disaster and woe ; and philosophy 
could only help the sterner natures to bear the general lot with composure. 
The tenderness of the sepulchral inscriptions, in the anthologies, or those 
briefer ejaculations of sorrowing affliction from the dying to the living and 
the living to the dying, which still speak to us so touchingly from the 
crumbling marbles of ancient Hellenic tombs, tell us by what is not said, 
still more eloquently than by what is expressed, how ready was the heart 
of Hellas for the consolations of the Christian faith. 

§ 9. The temples remained in their magnificence ; ceremonies and pro- 
cessions represented the ancient pomps of popular worship ; but, in many 
cases, the wealth belonging to them was monopolized by private persons, 
or diverted from its religious use by the corporations charged with their 
management, and Christianity gained a victory — though not without a 
lonjj strua;o;le against the conservative element of Paganism — over the 
indifference of the people to their ancient rites. It has been well remarked, 
that the early converts to the Christian Church were from the middling 
and the literary classes. Besides the peculiar consolations afforded by 
Christianity to the afflicted, of all ranks and conditions, there were popular 
elements in its early forms which could not fail to commend it to the 
regards of common men. It borrowed the designition ecclesia from the 
old popular assembly, and liturgy, from the sei'vices required by law of 
the richer citizens for the popular festivities. It taught the equality of 
ail men in the sight of God ; the brotherhood of all the races of man ; and 
this doctrine could not fail to be affectionately welcomed by a downtrodden 
people. Their assemblies were organized upon democratic principles, at 
least in Greece, and retained a semblance of the free assemblies of for- 
mer time ? ; and the daily business of communities was transacted under 



568 HISTORY OF GREKCE. [Chap. XLIX 

ttese popular forms, no less than spiritual affairs. " From the mo- 
ment a people," says Mr. Finlay, " in the state of intellectual civilization 
in which the Greeks were, could listen to the preachers, it was certain they 
would adojjt the religion. They might alter, modify, or corrupt it, but it 
was impossible they should reject it. The existence of an assembly, in 
which the dearest interests of all human beings were expounded and dis- 
cussed, in the language of truth, and with the most earnest expressions of 
persuasion, must have lent an irresistible charm to the investigation of the 
new doctrine among a people possessing the institutions and feelings of the 
Greeks. vSincerity, truth, and a desire to persuade others, will soon create 
eloquence, where numbers are gathered together. Christianity revived 
oratory, and with oratory it awakened many of the characteristics which 
had slept for ages. The discussions of Christianity gave also new vigor 
to the communal and municipal institutions, as it improved the intellectual 
quahties of the people." 

§ 10. But it was impossible for such organizations to exist, without gradu- 
ally rising to an important influence in the state ; and it was impossible 
for the maxims of Christianity to gain an extensive prevalence, without 
coming in collision with the maxims of the Roman government. The 
responsibility of rulers and ruled to a common and impartial tribunal 
could not be very tasteful to the rapacious masters of the Roman Empire ; 
and the doctrine of equality and brotherhood was a strange lesson for those 
whose policy and arms had enslaved the world. A bond which united the 
Christians of all countries in the strictest relations of friendship and affec- 
tion, could not but be viewed with suspicion by those who regarded th6 
citizenship of Rome as the most binding and exalted relation possible 
among men. And the Roman, in his nature, was less susceptible to relig- 
ious influences than the Greek ; he looked upon Christianity with refer- 
ence to its supposed political bearings, and persecuted it accordingly. 
But, in spite of all obstacles, in defiance of all persecutions, Christianity 
identified itself with the habits, thoughts, sentiments, hopes, and nation- 
ality of the Hellenic race. It was bound up with the language, in which 
the Apostles and earliest Fathers preached and taught and wrote. It 
held them together, and saved them from absorption into the vast body 
of the Roman Empire, and from annihilation by the hordes of barbarians 
who swept the country like a whirlwind, and settled upon it like de- 
vouring locusts. It ascended the throne with Constantine, and for eleven 
centuries shared in the highest dignities of the Eastern Empire. 



A. D. 330.] 



INAUGUKATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 



569 




Cathedral Church of St. Sophia. 

CHAPTER L. 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE IMMIGRATION OF 
THE SLAVONIANS INTO GREECE. 



§ 1. Building of Constantinople. ^ 2. Effect of transferring the Seat of Government to By 
zantium. § 3 Local Governments. § 4. The Emperor Julian. § 5. Separation of the 
Eastern and Western Empires. The Goths. New Meaning of the Name Hellenes. Attila 
and the Huns. § 6. Reign of Justinian. ^ 7. Slavonians. 

§ 1. Constantine removed the seat of empire from Rome to Constanti- 
nople, and inaugurated the latter city, with great pomp and ceremony, in 
the year a. d. 330. For thirty-four years the newly founded capital was the 
single seat of government in the Roman world, down to the reign of Jovian. 
For one hundred and one years the Empire was double-headed, the East- 
ern Empire having its seat of government at Constantinople, and the 
Western at Rome, until Romulus Augustulus closed his inglorious reign, 
and with it the Western Roman Empire, in the year 476. From this time 
the Roman Empire was the Eastern Empire, living on, under the Roman 
organization and Roman law, and claiming to be Roman, in all essential 
respects, under a succession of twenty-eight Emperors, until the accession 
of Leo III., commonly called the Isaurian, who ascended the throne 
in the year 717, and reigned twenty -four years. With the reign of this 
reforming Emperor, the old Roman spirit of the administration was ex-^ 
72 



570 HISTOKY OF GREECE. [Chap. L 

tingiiislied, and the proper Byzantine period commences. From the close 
of this Emperor's reign, in 741, to the conquest of Constantinople by the 
Western princes, or the termination of the reign of Alexius Ducas, in 
1204, forty-three rulers, including three Empresses, Irene, Zoe, and Theo- 
dora, held the reins of government for a period of four hundred and sixty- 
three years. The Latin Emperors, five in number, held the throne of Con- 
stantinople fifty-seven years only, when, in 1261, the line of Greek Em- 
perors was restored, in the person of Michael Palgeologus VIII. A 
succession of nine Emperors filled the period down to the reign of Con- 
stantine XIII., the last of the Palseologi, who closed his reign and his life 
with the downfall of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453, when Mohammed 
II., entering the city of Constantinople over the body of the slaugh- 
tered Emperor, planted the crescent on the dome of St. Sophia. For 
the long period of more than eleven hundred years Constantinople had 
been the great Christian capital of the East. 

The ancient city of Byzantium was founded by Megarian colonists, in 
the seventh century before Christ. It was built oh a promontory,, facing 
the waters of the Bosporus and the shores of Asia : and certainly no city 
in the world can surpass it in the beauty of its position, its facilities for 
commerce, or the picturesqueness of the scenery that surrounds it. It is 
washed on the east by the Bosporus, on the north by the Golden Horn, 
which derived this name from the rich traffic the fisheries supplied, at a 
very early period, and retains it to the present day^^ The harbor is seven 
miles in length, and the water, scarcely affected by tides, is deep enough to 
float vessels of the largest size. It was and is the key to the Euxine and 
the JEgean Seas, and its possession was an object of eager rivalship among 
the most powerful nations of antiquity. Philip of Macedonia, no less than 
Nicholas of Russia, made every effort to bring it under his power, and 
was prevented only by the energetic resistance of Demosthenes,, for which 
the people of Byzantium decreed, in honor of the Athenians, a statue and 
a golden crown. In the wars of the Romans, Byzantium sufl^ired her 
full share of disasters, in sieges, slaughters, the demolition of her walls, 
and changes in her political institutions. 

When Constantine determined to place his new capital here, he greatly 
enlarged the boundaries, and, to make it in all respects another Rome, 
took in the seven hills, wliich rise one above the other, and are covered by 
the, city. From his time it has borne the name of Constantinopolis — Con- 
stantinople — in the languages of Europe, Constanyi in the Arabic, and 
Stamboul in the Turkish, which is formed from the Greek words tls Tfjp 
TToXiv, into or in the city. The line of walls across the peninsula was 
marked by the Emperor, marching at the head of a procession : a splendid 
exhibition of chariot games was given in the hippodrome, after which the 
Emperor was drawn in a magnificent car through the city, bearing a golden 
Statue of Fortune in his hand, surrounded by his guards arrayed in 



A D. 361.J THE EMPEROli JULIAN. 571 

festal robes, and carrying lighted torches. The ceremonies of i*iaugura 
tion lasted forty days. The walls were not completed until the reign of 
Constantius ; they were overthrown by an earthquake at the beginning 
of the fifth century ; and the dilapidated walls which still exist, running 
from the Sea of Marmora to the harbor, are the remains of the double line, 
reconstructed in a. d. 447 with rectangular flanking towers at short inter- 
vals. The circuit of the city was about thirteen miles. 

§ 2. One effect of the transference of the seat of government to Byzan- 
tium was to bring the Greeks into a more direct communication with the 
Roman administration. It was the aim of the first Roman Emperors — 
those of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries — to establish the Latin lan- 
guage, the Roman law, and Roman institutions generally, on a more per- 
manent footing than they had yet gained in the East. The influence of the 
court had some effect. Those who were connected with it, or dependent 
on its favors, prided themselves in adopting the style, manners, and dig- 
nities of Roman officers : they called themselves Romans, and their country 
Rome, and even the spoken Greek language was subsequently known, and 
is known down to the present day, as the Romaic. In the. writings of 
those times we find a strange jumble of Latin with the Greek, especially 
in the legal documents. But this effect did not extend among the Greeks 
generally. The strong nationahty of the race easily withstood this tide 
of foreign manners, and while the dignitaries of the empire, and some of 
the leading ecclesiastics, were indulging in the pomp and ceremonies of 
the Roman court at Constantinople, the body of the Greek people, and 
the humbler clergy, remained faithfiil to the Hellenic ideas, and to the 
simple form of the religion they had received from the Apostles and their 
immediate successors. In fact, their aim was to make Constantinople a 
Greek and not a Latin city. The Roman spirit of the administration 
was gradually destroyed, though the capital shared little in the national 
feeling, and, giving itself up to the enjoyments of the largesses, and the 
games of the circus, granted her by the favor of tlie Emperors, remained 
insensible to tlie sufferings of the provinces and the decline of tlie Empire. 

§ 3. In Greece, the local governments were still allowed to exist, but the 
public burdens wei-e rigorously enforced by the imperial government : so 
that the reforms inaugurated by Constantine were of no substantial benefit 
to the Greeks as a nation. A system of monopoly, — since imitated by 
that overpraised barbarian, the Pacha of Egypt, — in which the I-Cmperor 
and members of the imperial household largely shared, interfered with the 
natural course of commerce, and tended powerfully to impoverish the 
provinces, and to weaken the barriers which the Empire had maintained 
against the inroads of the barbarians. 

§ 4. The remarkable career of the Emperor Julian, who ascended the 
throne a. d. 361, twenty -four years after the death of Constantine, de- 
serves a brief notice, with reference to its bearings on the condition and 
'brtunes of the Greeks. In his childhood and youth, though under the 



572 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. L 

jealous eyes of Constantius, and deprived of liberty, he was nevertheless 
carefully educated, both in the dogmas of the established church and in 
Greek and Roman literature. Athens was still the centre of Greek cul- 
ture, and here, after with difficulty obtaining the Emperor's consent, Julian 
was permitted to retire from the Asiatic cities, and for a time to lead the 
life of a sciiolar and private man. His acquirements and elegant tastes 
attracted the attention of the most eminent masters, and he passed his 
time in a circle of young men of congenial tastes, among whom was Greg- 
ory oF Nazianzus, who was afterwards known as the Christian orator 
and bitter enemy of the apostate Emperor, and the fiery antagonist of the 
Arians. In a short time he was disturbed from these peaceful pursuits, 
and placed in a military command, in the western and northern provinces 
of the Empire. He describes his feelings on quitting Athens in his letter 
to the Athenians : " What fountains of tears did I shed, what lamentations 
did I utter, stretching my hands up towards the Acropolis, when I in- 
voked and supplicated Athena to save her servant, and not to abandon 
him." His brilliant successes awoke again the jealousies of the Emperor 
Constantius, who recalled the best portion of his troops, under pretence of 
needing tliem for the defence of the East. The troops refused to obey, and, 
breaking into the lodgings of their beloved commander, forced him to ac- 
cept the imperial crown. Before he came into actual conflict with the 
armies of the East, the Emperor died, and now, without opposition, Julian 
mounted the throne, in A. D. 361. Up to this moment he had disguised his 
apostasy from the religion in which he had been educated, though it had 
already been suspected by his brother Gallus, by Gregory, and perhaps 
by others. The policy of Constantine, the cruelty of Constantius, the 
persecuting sjnrit already displaying itself between the Orthodox and 
Arians, backed by the arguments of the Athenian philosophers, with whom 
he had chiefly associated, had completely alienated him from the Christian 
faith. He however published an edict of toleration, professing to secure 
to both Christians and Pagans the riglits of conscience : but he gratified 
his private inclinations by preferring Pagans to Christians in civil and mil- 
itary offices, and forbidding the Christians to teach rhetoi'ic and grammar 
in the schools. He was initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis ; did much 
towards restoring Athens, Argos, and Corinth to their ancient splendor ; 
re-established the Isthmian games ; and in inany other ways manifested his 
passionate attachment to the land of Gfeece, her literature, her institutions, 
and her arts. But the dream of restoring to her declining gods the an- 
cient reverence was that of an enthusiast, but an imperial enthusiast; of 
a pedant in paganism, though a very able and perhaps honest one. The 
work he wrote against the Christian dogmas, though it excited a prodigious 
controversy in its day, is known only by tradition, and by extracts pre- 
served in Cyril, who replied to it, — the copies of the work being de- 
stroj^ed by Theodosius II. The impression his name makes in later 
times is due chiefly to the odious epithet of Apostate, by which he is 



A. p. 364.J CHRISTIANS AND HELLENES. 573 

generally designated. In reality ke was a philosoplier of great modera* 
tion ; a sovereign whose reign was distinguished above most of his succes- 
sors for devotion to the happiness of the people. Those of his writings 
which are not on controversial subjects display uncommon literary care 
for the age, and some of them are of great historical importance. Two 
or three of them, his Cn3sars, or the Banquet, and The Misopogon, or 
Beard-hater, exhibit a considei'able turn for satire. But his deliberate 
preference of Paganism over Christianity, in consequence of the quarrels 
and scandalous conduct of some of the professors of the latter, and the su- 
perior urbanity and literary accomplishments of some of the adherents to 
the former, instead of forming his opinion upon the moral and religious 
ideas which lie at the respective foundations of the two, will justly and for 
ever deprive him of the praise of being a profound thinker. 

§ 5. The Eastern and Western Empires were separated in A. d. 364, by 
Valentinian and Valens. In the north and east, the storm of barbarian 
invasion was ominously gathering against the Empire. The Goths were 
permitted by Valens to pass the Danube, when the fiercer Huns, advancing 
from the confines of China, compelled them to seek the protection of the 
Emperor. This movement quartered a million of warriors within the do- 
main of Rome, between whom and the Empire a desperate war speedily 
broke out. But the separation of the East from the West bound up the 
interests of the sovereigns more intimately with the fortunes of their Greek 
subjects. The Greek language began to supplant the Latin at the court, 
and the feeling of Greek nationality penetrated even to the imperial fam- 
ily ; and new vigor seemed about to be mfused into the eastern portion of 
the Empire. The municipal and ecclesiastical organizations of the Greeks 
gained still greater influence in the general government ; and the Christian 
religion gradually directed the attention of the educated to theological ques- 
tions, almost exclusively. There still remained in the schools, however, a 
number of philosophical adherents to declining paganism ; many of them, like 
Julian and Libanius, not only distinguished by their literary accomplish- 
ments, but by the general purity of their lives. The name of Hellenes was 
gradually limited to the Pagan Greeks of Europe. Christians and Hellenes 
became distinctive terms in Greece itself, which still retailed the name 
of Hellas. At the present day this application of the term is not unknown 
in some parts of Greece. The influence of the lawyers on the general ad- 
ministration of justice began to exercise a very important control, not only 
over the judicial tribunals, but as a check to the injustice of proconsuls, and 
even to the despotism of the Emperors themselves ; but it is a singular 
fact, and one which diminished the beneficial influence of this body among 
the Greeks, that though the Greek language was the language of the 
Eastern Church, yet the Latin was the language of legal business in the 
East, until the time of Justinian, that is, till after the sixth century ; — a 
circumstance that enabled the clergy, by their more intimate connection with 
the people, to extend their sphere of activity beyond the range of ecclesias- 



574 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. L. 

tical, to the civil affairs. All this apparent progress was arrested, or at 
least interrupted, by the troubles with the Goths. The Huns pressed 
forward, subjecting district after district, and province after province. In 
the first half of the fifth century, at the head of an immense troop of fol- 
lowers, Attila advanced upon Europe, and, almost without the show of 
resistance, invaded, occupied, and desolated all the regions from the Eux- 
ine to the Adriatic Sea. Greece suffered the extremities of spoliation 
under these swarming hordes, with all its atrocities and horrors. The 
Emperor was terrified into purchasing peace by the payment of an 
annual tribute of two thousand pounds of gold, and ceding an extensive ter- 
ritory of fifteen days' journey in breadth, and extending in length from 
Nyss£e to Belgrade. For the next seven years Attila was the terror of 
the East and West. His exploits were the theme of popular songs among 
the barbarians, and tradition added fable to the facts of history. Under 
the name of Etzel he reappears in the earliest legends of Germany, and 
is one of the leading personages in that grand old poem, the Nibelungen- 
lied. " He was interred," says Sir James Emerson Tennent, " after the an- 
cient manner of the fathers of his nation, the Huns cutting off their hair, 
and gashing their faces with hideous wounds, to bewail their chieftain, not 
with effeminate tears, but with the blood of warriors. His body, placed 
beneath a silken pavilion, was exhibited in the midst of the plain, whilst 
the horsemen of his tribe rode around it, and celebrated his exploits in 
funeral hymns. In the darkness of midnight the remains of Attila were 
inclosed in a golden, and again in a silver coffin, to mark that the Romans 
and the Greeks had been his tributaries ; and all was enveloped in an iron 
chest, to indicate the untamed ferocity of his dominion. The trappings of 
his war-horse, and his royal insignia, were committed to the same sepul- 
chre with himself; and the slaves who hollowed out his tomb were slain 
when the work was finished, in order that no mortal might disclose the 
last resting-place of the warrior of the Huns." 

§ 6. The long reign of Justinian, from 527 to 565, — thirty-nine years, — 
was in some respects a brilliant one ; but, to use the language of another, 
"it was merely a glowing episode in a tale of ruin, — a meteor in a mid- 
night sky, which flashes brightly for an instant, and, vanishing, leaves no 
halo of its transient brilliancy behind." Yet he was indefatigably occupied 
with reforms, intended to strengthen the Empire. He embellished the 
capital with costly edifices, "rebuilt the cathedral church of St. Sophia, 
repaired the walls and towers of Constantinople, the strongholds in the North 
of Greece, the fortifications of Athens and Peirteus, and protected the 
Peloponnesus by fortresses at Corinth and on the Isthmus. He paid 
more than a million of dollars towards rebuilding and embellishing Antioch, 
after it had been overthrown by an earthquake. He abolished the consul- 
ship which had been in existence more than a thousand years, and in his 
reign the schools of Athens and Alexandria, in which doctrines antago- 
nistic to Christianity were still taught, were closed. He was brilliantly 



A. D. 717.] THE SLAVONIANS. 575 

successful in his wars, through his generals, and this with his contempo- 
raries gave him still greater glory than his works of peace : but posterity 
acknowledge him chiefly for his agency in compiling the Institutes, Digest, 
and Pandects, — the Corpus Juris Civilis, — which has so largely influenced 
the administration of justice down to the present day. 

§ 7. The Western Empire ended with the inglorious reign of Romulus 
Augustulus, in a. d. 476 ; but the Eastern Empire, under Roman influ 
ences, continued for a period of about one hundred and flfty years aftei 
Justinian, to the accession of Leo the Isaurian, in A. d. 717, when, in the 
opinion of Mr. Finlay, the proper Byzantine Period commences. In this 
century and a half seventeen Emperors sat upon the throne ; but the most 
important events, so far as the Greeks were concerned, were the settlements 
of Slavonians, and other foreign or bai'barous races, over the greater part 
of Greece. The diminution of the Hellenic people had gone on, partly 
owing to the general decay of the Empire, and partly to other and local 
causes, chiefly, among the latter, by the accumulation of immense landed 
estates in the hands of individuals. The neglect of roads led to the aban- 
donment of the cultivation of the soil on large tracts of country, and its 
conversion into pasture land ; and, as the revenues to be derived from a 
country in this condition were insignificant, the government at Constanti- 
nople became indifferent to its defence. The provinces of Greece were 
thus exposed to the inroads of Slavonian settlers, which commenced early 
in the sixth century. The progress of these settlements is obscurely inti- 
mated in the Byzantine historians ; but the fact that they occupied the 
greater part of Macedonia, and in such numbers that Justinian II., at the 
end of the seventh century, was able to remove into Asia, and settle on 
the shores of the Bosporus, a colony of one hundred and fifty thousand 
souls, shows in what numbers they came. They became almost the sole 
possessors of the territories once occupied by the lUyrians and Thracians. 
They advanced southward, occupying the waste lands ; but as they pen- 
etrated into the heart of Greece, they met with more obstruction from 
a dense population, especially in the neighborhood of the still remaining 
walled towns. In the early part of the eighth centuiy, nearly the whole 
of the Peloponnesus was occupied by the Slavonians, and it was then re- 
garded by pilgrims from Western Europe as the Slavonian land ; and the 
complete colonization of the whole country of Greece and the Pelopon- 
nesus is dated by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus from the 
time of the great pestilence that depopulated the East, in A. D. 746, which 
IS a little later than the commencement of the Byzantine period. Such 
are the principal facts known in history with regard to this extraordinary 
series of events, by which an old population was almost entirely displaced, 
in the course of two centuries, by swarms of another race, coming into the 
country partly as warriors and enemies, partly as agriculturists, herdsmen, 
and shepherds, to occupy the lands left vacant by the greatly diminished 
numbers of the Greeks. These bodies seem to have been set in motion 



576 HISTORY OF GKEECE. [Chap. L. 

by wars along the line of the northern provinces ; and when they were 
once establislied, they lived in a rude and wild independence. They took 
possession of the valleys chiefly, and the interior of the provinces, and 
they left traces of their possession in the still remaining Slavonic names 
which are scattered all over the surface of Greece. The Greeks them- 
selves still held the sea-coasts and the large towns, the old Greek names 
of which were for the most part still retained. Fi'om time to time, the 
old and the new inhabitants came into collision, and wars raired here 
and there. Twice, at least, the aid of the Empei'or was sup{)licaled, large 
armies were sent from Constantinople, and the Slavonians were partially 
conquered and compelled to })ay tribute to the impei-ial government. But 
the singularity of this chapter in Greek history consists in the fact, that 
this gre;it bixly of intrusive settlers gradually disap[)eared from the soil of 
Greece as mysteriously as they came. Some had, of course, mingled with 
the Greeks, were converted to Christianity, and in the course of time, by the 
blending of families, became Hellenized in language, mannei's, and blood, 
and to all intents and purposes Greeks, just as the descendants of a 
foreign settler in England, mingling his blood'with the native race, lose the 
original nationality of their ancestoi's and become Englishmen. Professor 
Fallmereyer indeed, in his learned and entertaining work, written in Gei'- 
man, — the History of the Peninsula of the Morea, — maintains that the 
Hellenic population was entirely exterminated, and that the people who 
call themselves Greeks at the present day are nothing but descendants of 
these Slavonian hordes. His book has called forth several replies ; 
and his unfounded assumptions and numerous misrepresentations of his- 
torical facts have been ably exposed by Zinkeisen, in his excellent History 
of Greece. But in truth, it is quite unnecessary to enter largely into 
historical research, to show the fallacy of Fallmereyer's opinion. The 
Slavonians are light-haired, blonde-complexioned, and blue-eyed ; the 
Greeks have dark hair, brown complexions, and sparkling black eyes. 
The Slavonians are broad-faced, stout, and somewhat clumsy ; the Greeks 
are lithe, slender, nimble, graceful. The same features that we admire in 
the ancient statues, nature still reproduces everywhere in Greece. The in- 
tellectual qualities of the races are strikingly different. The Greek is lively, 
quick to understand, adroit, eloquent, curious, eager for novelty ; the Sla- 
vonian slow, indifferent, not easily moved to take an interest in anything 
that does not immediately concern himself, and, what is more, the trav- 
eller in Greece falls in, here and there, with descendants of the Slavo- 
nians and other foreign settlers, — sometimes occupying an entire village 
by themselves. Even in Athens, there is a quarter inhabited almost exclu- 
sively by Albanians ; and not ten miles from Athens there is a village 
where Greek is not understood. Now it is impossible for the most careless 
observer to mistake these people for one another, either in their looks or 
their speech, or in their mental characteristics. 



A. D. 1081.J 



CONQUKSTS OF THE NORMANS. 




Constantinople, or Stamboul. 



CHAPTER LI. 



PARTITION OF THE EJVIPIRE. 

§ 1. Conquests of the Normans. § 2. Crusades. Frankisk Domination in Greece. § 3. Dukes 
of Athens. § 4. Origin and Progress of the Turlvs § 5. Moliammed IT. Preparations 
for the Capture of Constantinople. § 6 Capture of Constnntinople. § 7. Conquest of 
the Morea. § 8. Conquest of Trel^izond. § 9. Byzantine Writers, their General Char- 
acteristics. § 10. Zosimus, Procopius, Constantine Porpliyrogenitus, Nicephorus Bry- 
ennius, Anna Comnena, Laoiiicns Cliiiicocondvles. 



§ 1. From the period of which we have been speaking, the condition of 
Greece remained without undergoing any important change, until the con- 
quests of the Normans in the eleventh century. In 1081 Robert Guiscard 
passed over from Brindisi to Corfou with a powerful fleet. The inhabitants 
of the island making no resistance, he then landed in Epeirus; but in conse- 
quence of the death of the chieftain the expedition had no permanent con- 
sequence on the condition of the country. Another invasion of Greeee 
was made by Bohemund, called the Duke of Antioch : it was repelled by 
the Emperor Alexis, and Bohemund forced to acknowledge himself liege- 
man of the Byzantine Emperor. A third invasion was conducted by 
Roger, the powerful and wealthy king of Sicily. He appeared off Coifou 
in 1146 with a fleet of seventy sail, and, having easily mastered the island. ' 
proceeded to the mainland, marched through Epeirus and Attica, and plun- 
73 



578 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI 

dered Thebes, Athens, and Corinth. Thebes was then a rich manufac- 
turing town, especially remarkable for the silk trade. The city was com- 
pletely plundered, — gold, silver, jewels, bales of silk, carried off to the fleet, 
and the most skilful of the silk-workers borne off as slaves to Sicily, there 
to exercise their industry for the benefit of their new masters. Corinth 
was sacked with equal cruelty. These spoliations were a fatal blow to 
the prosperity of Greece, which had been silently advancing for the last 
two centuries ; but little occurred to disturb the country during the cen- 
tury that followed, until the Crusades broke Out and precipitated the 
chivalry of Europe upon the coasts of Asia. The Califs interfered but 
little with the Christian pilgrims visiting the sacred places in the Holy 
Land, but when the Seljouk Turks, having secured the dominion over the 
Saracens, became masters of Jerusalem, the pilgrims were exposed to 
unheard-of cruelties, which exasperated the Christian world. 

§ 2. The religious enthusiasm of "Western Europe, harmonizing with 
the spirit of chivalry, created a storm of unparalleled violence, and swept 
the combined hosts of the Christian powers from Europe to the East, re- 
solved to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the polluting hands of the Infidel. 
Here commenced the question about the Holy Places, which originally 
armed the great nations of Christendom against the followers of Mahomet ; 
and which now, blending with political interests of the same great nations, 
has armed them in defence of the Turk against the encroachments of the 
Czar. The first three Crusades, though very important in their effects 
upon the Byzantine Empire, did not directly act upon the condition of 
Greece ; but the fourth Crusade, which took place in A. d. 1203, had the 
most important consequences. The arrival of the armies of the West was, 
in the highest degree, unwelcome to the Emperors of the East : but they 
could not well save themselves from the necessity of extending a reluctant 
hospitality to the intruders. The Greek assumed to be far in advance of the 
rest of the world in refinement, and felt contempt for the rudeness and 
barbarism of the Latin ; and the Latin looked upon the Greek as of a de- 
graded caste, and a heretic. Li June, a. d. 1 203, the Venetian fleet, with the 
army of Crusaders on board, appeared at Constantinople, having engaged 
to restore the son of the dethroned Emperor to his hereditary rights. 
They were commanded by Henry Dandolo, the blind old warrior of Ven- 
ice, who had private wrongs to avenge, no less than public engagements 
to execute. After two days of desperate fighting, the city was taken, and 
Alexius IV. crowned Emperor. A second destructive conflagration soon 
after laid a great part of the city in ashes. This was caused by a wilful 
act of incen liarism, committed in a drunken frolic by some Flemish sol- 
diers, and Constantinople never entirely recovered from this calamity. 
The fury of the people was excited beyond all bounds, and fifteen thousand 
of the Latins, who resided within the walls of the city, were forced to quit 
the capital and seek safety in Galata, beyond the Golden Horn. The 



A. D 1205.] DUKl-.DOM OF ATHENS. 579 

Venetians and Crusaders again laid siege to Constantinople, on the 12th 
of April, 1204; and another quarter of the city perished by a third con- 
flagration. " These three fires," it is said, " which the Franks had liglited 
in Constantinople, destroyed more houses than were contained in the three 
largest cities in France." Thus the capital of the Byzantine Empire fell 
into the hands of Latin princes, and the Empire itself, under the name of 
Romania, reorganized, under a series of Western Emperors, continued 
until A. D. 1261, — or fifty-seven years. Greece, too, was completely 
remodelled. The Crusaders entered Greece, and divided its pi'oviiices. 
Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, became sovereign of Salonica : Epeirus 
still continued, under the title, at first, of a despotat, to be governed by a 
Byzantine family. Afterwards it was changed into an empire, and then 
changed back again to a despotat: and it lasted until A. d. 14G9. Achaia 
and the Morea became a principality under William de Champlitte and his 
successor, Geoffrey Villehardouin, and continued to A. d. 1387.* The 
Dukedom of the Archipelago, or Naxos, lasted from A. d. 1207 to A. D. 
1566 ; — a greater prolongation of the Frankish power than occurred else- 
where in the East. 

§ 3. But by far the most interesting of these Frank establishments in 
Greece was the Dukedom of Athens, which began in A. D. 1205, with 
the reign of Otho de la Roche, and continued under his family until A. d. 
1308, — five dukes. The house of Brienne succeeded at this time, in the 
person of Walter de Brienne, who, being threatened by his enemies, called 
in the assistance of the Grand Catalan Company, — a troop of marauders 
whose adventures in the East fill a very remarkable episode in this chapter 
of history. But when he attempted to dismiss them they defied him, and, 
marching into the plains of Boeotia, took up a position on the banks of the 
Cephissus, near the ancient Orchomenos. The Duke of Athens, with a 
numerous cavalry, pursued them. The Catalan leaders had conducted the 
waters of the Cephissus into the fields covered with corn, just in front of 
their own lines, making the ground soft and muddy, while the verdure 
concealed every appearance of irrigation. The Duke dashed in with his 
cavalry; but, getting inextricably involved in the yielding earth, the wliole 
band of cavalry, with the exception of two, were slain. The Catalans 
pushed their conquests vigorously, capturing both Thebes and Athens. 

* The History of the Conquest of Morea is contained in a curious metrical chronicle, writ- 
ten in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It was published in its complete form by Buchon, 
with other documents relating to the same period, in 1845. It consists of 7,892 verses, with a 
Prologue of 1,302, in the metre technically called versus politkus, — accented but not rhymed. 
It is valuable in an historical point of view, and very curious as an illiu-tration of the state 
of the language. It is called Bi^Xiov rrjs KovyKioras rov Mtapat'cos, — The Book of the 
Conquest of the Morea. The Prologue begins: — 

" I will a tale to thee rehearse, a tale of import mighty; 
And if attention you do lend, I hope the tale will please you. 
'T is how the Frank by arms did gain the realm of fair Morea." 



580 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI. 

At Thebes they burned the magnificent palace of St. Omar, whose splen- 
dor had been the theme of minstrels in that age. At Athens they laid 
waste the olive groves of the Academy and Colonos. They divided the 
fiefs of the nobles who had fallen, and the officers took in marriage the 
surviving widows and heiresses : and in the language of Muntaner, the 
quaint old Spanish chronicler, who was an eyewitness of what he de- 
scribes, " many stout Catalan warriors received as wives noble ladies, for 
whom, the day before their victory, they would have counted it an honor 
to be allowed to hold their washing basin."" 

These events were followed by the establishment of a duke from the 
Sicilian branch of the house of Aragon, on a request conveyed by a 
deputation of the Catalans to Frederick II. From that time the duchy of 
Athens and Neopatras became an appanage to the house of Aragon. It 
remained in this line until A. d. 1386, about sixty years. From this line 
of princes the power passed to the Florentine house of Acciauoli, who 
had risen by commercial success to great influence, both in Italy and in 
the East. Six dukes of this family ruled over Athens, from A. d. 1386 to 
A. D. 1456, when Attica, with the rest of Greece, fell under the yoke of 
the Turks, and the transient reflex of ancient prosperity she had enjoyed 
under these Western rulers sank in the long night of slavery. During the 
period of the Dukes of Athens, Muntaner declares, the Frank chivalry 
of Greece was second to none in Europe ; the Duke of Athens was one of 
the greatest princes of the Empire of Romania, and among the noblest of 
those sovereigns who did not bear the kingly title. Athens was the re- 
sort of the gayest knights in those ages ; and chivalrous games and cere- 
monies were often rehearsed among the classic ruins which still abounded 
in that city. The service of the Roman Church was performed in the Par- 
thenon, then conseci'ated to the Blessed Virgin ; and on one occasion, the 
pages of the delightful old chronicler attest, a visitor to the ducal palace 
received the honor of knighthood in the temple of Athena. Among the 
classic sculptures still found, though in mutilated beauty, on the Acropolis, 
there are some rude fragments executed in the time of the Franks. But 
these Latin princes never identified themselves with the native population. 
They preserved their language, as they did their manners, unchanged; 
and Muntaner says, " The French was spoken as well at Atlfens as at 
Paris." The feudal system they introduced was not in harmony with 
the spirit of the people. They Uved a ruling caste among a subject 
race ; and the vices of the system made them an easy prey to the 
fiery zeal and hardihood of a fresh nation of conquerors. They, too, 
like the invaders who preceded them, entirely disappeared from the 
face of Hellas, with their language, their manners, their jousts and 
tournaments, their stately revels, and their devotion to the fair. They 
left a few ruined castles, here and there, on the hill-tops of Greece, 
contrasting strangely with the classic ruins of Hellenic times. The 



A.D.I 451.] THE TURKS. 58.1 

Btately palace of St. Omar, at Thebes, where Muntaner visited his 
master, Don Fernando of Majorca, who was then a prisoner in its grand 
old halls, is all gone except a ruined tower, which hostile forces and the 
convulsions of nature have been alike unable to shatter. Here and there, 
in the decaying monasteries of Greece, a few musty records of their exist- 
ence may be explored by the curious traveller. The Dukes of Athens, 
who held their knightly revels in their palace by the Propylaea, or pre- 
sided over tournaments in the plain of Athens, are now to be traced only 
in an arched subterranean chamber, an old tower, and two stone coffins 
in the crumbling monastery of Daphne, which occupies the site of an an- 
cient temple of Apollo, thrown carelessly into a dark room filled with 
rubbish, and only known by the nearly obhterated fleur-de-lis carved on 
the side.* 

§ 4. The Turks are first mentioned in history in the sixth century. 
They are a Tatar race, fi*om the great Steppes of Northern Asia, at the 
foot of the Altai Mountains. In the eighth century they blended with 
the Saracens in Persia, and reigned over Palestine, Syria, and Egypt in 
the tenth. In the eleventh century, another tribe, called the Seljouk Turks, 
subdued the greater part of Western Asia, and established the powerful 
empire with which the Crusaders waged war for the possession of the 
Holy Sepulchre. The Ottoman Empire, built upon the ruins of the tran- 
sient powers established by their predecessors, and now representing the 
Saracens, Arabs, and Turks, was founded in the thirteenth century, by 
Osman, who extended the bounds of his ten-itories to the shores of the 
Black ■ Sea. This w^as a century and a half before the capture of Con- 
stantinople. In A. D. 1360, Adrianople was taken by Amurath I., and 
became for a time the seat of the Turkish Empire in Europe. The 
successors of this prince were involved in wars with the Venetians, Hun- 
garians, and Poles, in which at times the destinies of European civihza- 
tion hung trembling in the balance. 

I 5. Mohammed II. was born at Adrianople in a. d. 1430, and succeed- 
ed Amurath II. in 1451. He was a man of uncommon ability and acquire- 
ments for his race and his age. He understood five languages. The Greek 



* The fame of the brilliant coiirt of Athens resounded through the West of Europe, and 
many a chapter in old romance is filled with gorgeous pictures of its splendors. One of the 
heroines of Boccaccio's Decameron, in the course of her adventurous life, is found at Athens 
inspiring the Duke by her charms. Dante was a contemporary of Guy II. and Walter 
de Brienne; and in his Divine Comedy applies to Theseus, king of ancient Athens, the title 
BO familiar to him, borne by the princely rulers in his own day. Theseus is, like Otho or 
Vfalter, il Duca d''Atene, — the Duke of Athens. Chaucer too — the bright herald of Eng- 
lish poetry — had often heard of the Dukes of Athens, and he, like Dante, gives that 
title to Theseus. And finally, in the :ige of Elizabeth, when Italian poetry was much stud- 
ied by scholars and courtiers, Shakespeare, in the delightful scenes of the Midsummer 
Night's Dream, introduces the illustrious Theseus, the conqueror and the lover of Hippolyta, 
the warrior Queen of the Amazons, as the Duke of Athens. 



582 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI 

historian, Phrantzes, M^ho had seen him at the coui't of Amurath, describes 
him as energetic and able, and fond of tlie society of learned men, him- 
self not ignorant of science, and addicted to astrology ; but he was cruel 
to the last degree, pitiless, and licentious. No consideration, human or 
divine, stood between him and the gratification of his desires. But his 
acts and his conquests come within the scope of our subject no further 
than they affected the fortunes of the Greeks, and on this topic a few word* 
only must suffice. The conquest of Constantinople was the first object 
on which his thoughts were fixed, at the opening of his reign ; the resolu- 
tion with which he had formed this purpose expressed itself in the stern 
rej.Iy to the ambassadors of the P]mperor, offering him tribute if he would 
renounce the project of building a fort on the European shore of the Bos- 
porus, which, at the distance of only five miles from the capital, would give 
him the command of the Black Sea. He ordered the envoys to retire, 
and ihreatened to flay alive any who should dare to bring him a similar 
message again. The fort was finished in three months, and gaiTisoned 
with four hundred Janizaries ; a tribute was exacted of all vessels that 
passed ; and war was formally declared by the Sultan. Constantine made 
the best preparations in his power lor defence ; but he could only muster 
six hundred Greek troops. Disheartened by the feebleness and want of 
spirit manifested by his own subjects, the Emperor made overtures to the 
Pope for a reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches, in the hope of 
drawing to his standard a portion of the warlike troops and officers then so 
numerous in Italy. A cardinal was accordingly despatched to Constanti- 
nople, and on the 12th of December, a. d. 1452, the Emperor Constantine 
celebrated his union with the Catholic Church in the cathedral of St. Sophia. 
A few troops came from Italy, and Justiniani, an Italian officer, arrived 
from Genoa, with two galleys and three hundred chosen men : he was 
appointed general of the guard. But with all the reinforcements thus 
received, the number was insignificant, compared with the extent of the 
walls to be defended, and the overpowering host the Sultan was concen- 
trating around the devoted city. The hatred of the Greeks for the 
Latin Christians was an insurmountable obstacle to thoiough co-operation. 
Dissensions broke out between the Grand Duke Notaras and the Italian 
commander. " I beseech you, my brethren," said the Emperor, " be at 
peace ; the war from abroad is enough ; for God's mercy, do not fight with 
one another." Instead of rallying round their Emperor unanimously, the 
bigotp spent their time in denouncing his apostasy, and insulting him as he 
passed through the streets.* The means of defence — the machines, ar- 
tillery, and powder (for artillery and gunpowder had already begun to be 



* Gennadios, who was afterwards Patriarch under the Sultan, carried this insane spirit 
of intolerance so far, that he declared he would rather see the turban of the Turk ruling 
b the heart of the city, than the mitre of the La'in. (Ducas, Hist. Byzant., c. 37, p. 264." 



A.. D. 1453.] SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 5S3 

used) — were scantily provided. The land wall, for five miles exposed at 
every point to attack, had to be manned. The wall towards the port and 
the Propontis was some nine miles, and the whole garrison amounted to 
only nine thousand men. The fleet consisted of twenty-three vessels, of 
all kinds. The entry of the port was closed by a strong chain, the end 
of which was secured in a fort of which the Greeks held possession, in 
Galata, The first division of the Ottoman army left Adrianople in Feb- 
ruary, 1453. In April the Sultan established his lines, from the head of 
the port to the shore of the Propontis, and ei'ected his batteries, fourteen 
in all, against the principal gates, — especially against Chasias and St. 
Romanes, — the latter of which is now called Top Kapou, Cannon Gate, 
in commemoration of the siege. A Dacian artilleryman had cast a mon- 
ster cannon expressly for this assault, two and a half feet in diameter at 
the mouth, for the purpose of firing granite balls. This tremendous piece 
was mounted opposite the St. Romanes Gate, where the chief assault was 
to be made. The army is said to have amounted to two hundred and fifty 
thousand men, of all arms, and the fleet to four hundred and twenty vessels, 
of all sizes. These numbers are probably an exaggeration ; but the 
overwhelming superiority of the Turkish forces, and the fiery energy of 
the youthful Sultan, left no hope of a successful resistance. Yet some 
disasters checked the ■ ardor of the besiegers. Four corn-ships, bound 
for Constantinople, destroyed the Turkish galleys that intercepted them, 
and passed triumphantly into the harbor, over the chain, which was lowered 
for their passage. The great gun burst, without doing any damage, except 
killing its inventor and many Turks ; and a wooden tower they had brought 
up against the wall was burnt down in a night sortie by Justiniani. But 
these incidents only stimulated the activity of the Sultan. He resolved 
to bring his fleet, which still lay in the upper part of the Bosporus, into 
direct communication with his armies ; but the harbor was closed, and well 
defended. He accordingly conceived and executed, with incredible energy, 
the plan of transporting his galleys by land over the height of Pera, and 
launching them in the Golden Horn under protection of his own batteries. 
A road was formed, laid with planks and rails, and covered with tallow, 
up which the vessels were dragged, by the aid of windlasses and numer- 
ous yokes of oxen, one after the other, and let down the opposite slope, 
just above the present arsenal. The removal of a division of the Ottoman 
fleet thus took place in a single night, and at daylight the Greeks looked out 
with amazement upon seventy hostile ships, riding at anchor under the 
battei'ies. Having accomplished this signal achievement, the Sultan next 
threw a bridge across the harbor, defended by artillery, to establish an 
easy communication between the besieging force and the naval camp up 
the Bosporus. Mohammed noAV summoned the Emperor to surrender, 
offering him an appanage as a vassal of the Porte ; but Constantine, who 
had calmly resolved not to survive the fall of the city, indignantly rejected 



5S4 



HISTOTIY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI. 



the insulting offer. On the night before the assault, the Emperor rode round 
to all the post>, encouraging the troops by his cheerful demeanor; then, 
resorting to the church of St. Sophia, he partook, with his companions, of 
the holy sacrament, according to the Latin forms. He returned to the 
-imperial palace, and, asking pardon of a,ll the members of his household 
for every offence he might ever have given them, withdrew, amidst their 
sighs and prayers and tears, mounted his horse, and rode away, with the 
solemn certainty that he should never meet them again in this world. 

§ 6. Before the dawn of day, May 29, A. D. 1453, preparations were made 
for the assault, the troops rapidly taking their positions before the portions 
of the wall they were to attack, and the galleys, with towers and scaling 
platforms, moving up against the foi'tifications of the fort, protected by 
the artillery on the bridge. The principal attack was directed to the gate 
of St. Romanes, where a passage had already been effected into the city. 
For more than two hours the defence was maintained at eveiy point, and 
in the harbor victory seemed for a time to incline to the besieged ; but at 
length, the small number of the defenders being diminished by death, ex- 
hausted by fatigue, unrelieved by rest, their commander wounded, and 
the Emperor left almost unsupported, a chosen band, led on by a gi- 
gantic warrior, Hassan of Ulubad, gained the summit of the dilapidated 
tower which flanked the passage. Theophilus Palseologos, when he saw 
the Emperor fighting, and the city on the point of falling, cried out, with 
a loud voice, and with tears, " ©eXw daveXv fxaXkov tj Cw" — "I ^^^^ ^o ^^^ 
rather than to live," — and rushing into the midst of the enemy, and hew- 
ing many down with his sword, was at length overpowered and slain. The 
Emperor, left almost alone, was slain by the Turks, who, in the dim 
twilight of the morning, failed to recognize him. Hassan, and many of his 
followers, fell ; but fresh columns coming up, a corps of Janizaries rushed 
into Constantinople over the lifeless body of the unrecognized Emperor. 
Other columns entered at other points, and the despairing people — sena- 
tors, priests, monks, nuns, husbands, wives, and children — sought safety 
in the church of St. Sophia. A prophecy had been circulated, that here 
the Turks would be arrested by an angel from heaven, with a drawn sword ; 
and here the miserable multitude crowded, in the expectation of super- 
natural help. The conquerors followed, sword in hand, slaughtoing those 
they encountered in the streets. They broke down the doors of the church 
with axes, and, rushing in, committed every act of 'atrocity that a frantic 
thirst for blood and the inflamed passions of demons could suggest. 
'' Who," says Ducas, " shall describe the calamity ? The lamentations of 
children, the tears and cries of mothers and fathers, who shall describe ? 
Men dragged away by the hair of the head; the servant bound with her 
mistress, the master with his slave ; maidens, whom the sun had never 
looked upon, dragged away, and beaten if they resisted." The unhappy 
victims were divided as slaves among the soldiers, without regard to blood 



A. D 1453.] CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 585 

or rank, and hurried off to the camp ; and the mighty cathedral, so long the 
glory of the Christian world, soon presented only traces of the most friglitful 
orgies. The other quarters of the city were plundered by other divisions 
of the army, and similar scenes enacted. " Those who yielded at once," 
says Phrantzes, an eyewitness, " were made slaves ; those that resisted, 
slain. In some places the earth was hidden by the dead. A strange 
spectacle was there ; — loud laments, and measureless violence in seizing 
noble ladies ; maidens, and nuns consecrated to God, pitilessly dragged by 
the hair from the churches by the Turks ; the cries of children, — who 
shall describe the horrors that were seen and heard ? " The rich ware- 
houses along the port were speedily pillaged of their accumulated mer- 
chandise. About noon the Sultan made his triumphal entry by the gate 
of St. Roraanos, passing by the body of the Emperor, which lay concealed 
among the slain. Entering the church, he ordered a moolah to ascend 
the bema, and announce to the Moslems that St. Sophia was now a 
mosque consecrated to the prayers of the true believers. He directed the 
body of the Emperor to be sought, his head to be exposed to the people, and 
afterwards to be sent as a trophy, to be seen by the Greeks, in the principal 
cities of the Ottoman Empire. For thi'ee days the city was given up to 
the indescribable horrors of pillage and the license of the Mussulman sol- 
diery. Forty thousand perished during the sack of the city, and fifty 
thousand were reduced to slaves. Youth, strength, beauty, and rank 
only insured their possessors the sad lot of servitude, adding often 
the harsher doom of an enforced conversion to the Moslem faith. 
Many families were utterly destroyed. The Grand Duke Notaras, one 
of the most distinguished persons in the Empire, refused to comply with 
the demand of the Sultan, that his youngest son should be sent to become 
a page in the palace, well knowing the fate which would await him there. 
The Sultan ordered him and all his sons to instant execution. The scene 
of the execution, as described by Ducas and Phrantzes, is most pathetic, — 
the father encouraging his sons by Christian exhortations to meet death 
bravely, and then, retiring to a chapel for a moment's prayer, calmly 
submitting to the headsman, with the bodies of his murdered children ly- 
ing before him. Of other families, the men were put to death, the male 
children placed in the schools of the Janizaries, and the females shut up 
in the harems of the Sultan and his courtiers. Even Mohammed, when 
he arrived at the imperial palace, was struck by the melancholy aspect 
of the place, and so awful an illustration of the mutability of human 
affairs. Even he — stained with blood — recalled a couplet of the Persian 
poet Firdusi : — 

" The spider's curtain hangs before the portal of Csesar's palace, 
The owl fills with his nocturnal wail the watch-tower of Afrasiab." 

§ 7. The princes of the Morea, learning the capture of Constanti- 
nople, sent their submission to the Sultan, which was received, on condition 

74 

.X 



586 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LL 

of a yearly tribute of twelve thousand gold ducats. But disturbances and 
revolts called for the presence of the Sultan, and by a vigorous campaign, 
in A. D. 1458, he reduced the rebels to submission. Again, in A. d. 1460, 
he passed the Isthmus of Corinth, to suppress new tumults ; and by a se- 
ries of the most atrocious massacres, not only of men taken with arms in 
their hands, but of unai-med men, women, and children, — more than six 
thousand having been put to death, and ten thousand transported to Con 
stantinople, — finally overthrew the power of the Byzantine rulers ; and 
after a few more desperate struggles by the local organizations, where 
similar scenes of slaughter were enacted, the subjection of Morea, with the 
exception of a few places held by the Venetians, was completed, — its re- 
sources exhausted, — its spirit broken, — so that the annual payment of 
children the Christians were compelled to send to Constantinople failed 
to awaken either patriotism or despair among the Greeks. And now 
nearly the whole of Greece, from north to south, was subjected to the 
sceptre of the Moslems, almost without further resistance. 

§ 8. A singular chapter, or appendix, of Byzantine life and history, 
is presented by the empire of Trebizond. Along the shores of the Black 
Sea many cities were early settled by colonists from Greece. From the 
mouth of the Halys to the Caucasus extends a magnificent country, of rich 
plains, wooded hills, forests, and rapid, fertilizing streams. On a table- 
shaped rock, on the southeast shore of the Euxine, the Greeks established 
a citadel, which from its form they called Trapezous, — now changed into 
Trebizond, — as early as the eighth century before Christ. In the Roman 
times it became an important centre of commercial relations between 
Persia and Europe, enjoying the privileges of a free city. It shared the 
fortunes of the Byzantine Empire, and in the Iconoclastic period became 
the capital of the Theme of Chaldia, and the centre of the diplomatic re- 
lations between the imperial government and the princes of Armenia ; 
and when the wars between the Saracens and Christians broke out, the 
Duke of Chaldia, who was charged with the business relating to them, 
made Trebizond his principal residence. From time to time, the rulers 
of this theme attempted to make themselves independent of the imperial 
government. But it was not until the Crusaders captured Constantinople, 
and divided the greater part of the provinces of the Empire among their 
princes, that Trebizond became a separate government, under the rule of 
a descendant of the Comneni. This family, who gave a dynasty to 
Byzantium, first appeared prominently towards the end of the tenth cen- 
tury, and from that time, for four hundred years, took a conspicuous, though 
not always an honorable, part in the affairs of the world. Alexius Comne- 
nos, a young prince, nephew of the Emperor Isaac Comnenos, escaped to 
Colchis, during the siege of Constantinople, with his brother David ; and 
there succeeded in raising an army, with which he entered Trebizond just 
at the moment of the fall of the capital. Assuming the title of Megas 



A. D. 1461.] CONQUKST OF TRKBIZOND. oS? 

Comnenos, or Grand Comnenos, to distinguish himself from tlie nu- 
merous descendants of other brandies of tlie family, he was readily 
acknowledged Emperor, and at the age of twenty-two was crowned at 
Trebizond.* His career of conquest at first was rapid and brilliant. At 
length, the young Emperor, coming into collision with the Seljouk Turks, 
who were spreading desolation along their path, was obliged to acknowl- 
edge himself a vassal of the Seljouk empire, and to pay an annual tribute 
to the Sultan Azeddin. From 1222 to 1280 Trebizond continued ti-ibutary 
to the Seljouk Sultans, but on the accession of John II. her inde[)eiidence 
was completely restored. The history of Trebizond, from this time for- 
ward, under twelve Emperors, and three Emjjresses, is crowded with the 
details of external and civil wars, which have no important bearing upon 
the general condition of the world. The Orthodox Eastei-n Church was 
here supported, under the protection of St. Eugenios, who was so great a 
favorite, that one son out of every family bore his name. A document 
relating to a lawsuit was found by Fallmereyer, in which three of the 
litigating parties were named Eugenios. In the conquering career of the 
Turks, its doom was postponed until Constantinople had fallen, and the 
Morea had yielded to the arms of Mohammed II. In 1461, the Sultan 
advanced with his fleets and armies, resolved on the subjugation of Trebi- 
zond. He met with little opposition from David, the last Emperor of the 
Comaenian line, who made terms with the invader, surrendered the city, 
and withdrew with his family and his treasures to his European appanage. 
The wealthy inhabitants were compelled to emigrate to Constantinople, 
and their estates and palaces conferi-ed on Ottoman officers ; the remainder 
of the population of both sexes were set apart as slaves of the Sultan and 
the army. The sons of the noblest families, remarkable for personal 
beauty, were placed as pages in the imperial seraglio, and others were 
enrolled in the corps of Janizaries, or distributed among the soldiers as 
slaves. Ancient churches and monasteries, with curious paintings in the 
Byzantine style, — pictures of saints and portraits of emperors, — still 
attest its former arts and piety ; but they are fast disappearing, by decay 
and neglect, and, unless the lovers of art soon take measures for tlieir [)]'o- 
tection, will utterly disappear, as Christian art has long since perished at 
Constantinople. At the present day, not a single descendant of an ancient 



* This chapter of history has not been fully known until the last few years. Docu- 
ments have come to light, since Gibbon's time, which have cleared up a subject he liad not 
the means of illustrating; in particular, a manuscript work, by Michael Panaretos, a monk 
of Trebizond, who held an office about the person of the last Emperor, and which contains 
a list, nearly complete, of the Grand Comnenoi, with some of the principal events of their 
reigns. This very curious document was found by Professor Fallmereyer among the books 
of Cardinal Bessarion preserved at Venice, and was published, in 1832, by Professor Tafel of 
Frankfort. It is also very curious as an illustration of the state of the language. It is the 
basis of the History of Trebizond by Fallmereyer, and of the very elegant chapters on the 
Bam'i subject in Mr. Finlay's Medisevnl Greece. 



588 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI 

Trapezuntian family is known to survive. The dethroned Empei-or was 
permitted to live in peace a few years ; but about A. D. 1470 he fell under 
the jealous suspicions of the Sultan, was arrested, with all his family, and 
carried to Constantinople. He was ordered to embrace the faith of Islam, 
under pain of death ; but he rejected the condition with firmness. The 
Emperor, his seven sons, and his nephew Alexius, were put to death, and 
their lifeless bodies cast out, unburied, beyond the walls. They would 
have been consumed by the dogs, " accustomed," says an eloquent writer, 
" during the reign of Mohammed II., to feed on Christian flesh," but 
for the pious care of the Empress Helen, who, clad in humble garb, 
repaired to the spot where they lay, watched over their bodies during the 
day, and in the darkness of night, assisted by a few compassionate friends, 
silently committed them to the earth. Her daughter was torn from her 
arms, and worse than buried in a Turkish harem. Widowed, childless, or 
more unhappy still, the fallen Empress, having suffered the saddest changes 
of public fortune and the most harrowing and heart-breaking of private 
calamities, — like some doomed heroine of the tragic families of antiquity, — 
passed the short remainder of her life in mourning and prayer, and then 
found a welcome refuge in the grave. 

§ 9. The series of Byzantine historians extends from the fourth nearly to 
the sixteenth century, if we include the few who wrote after the capture of 
Constantinople. These writers contain the immense mass of materials of 
which Gibbon made so admirable use in his unequalled History of the 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The most convenient edition 
is the octavo reprint, projected and in part superintended by Niebuhr. 
These writers are quite apart from the usual range of classical studies, 
and are generally neglected. But some of these works are written by 
men of literary accomplishments, honorable characters, and large expe- 
rience in affairs. None of them equal the Attic historians in the high 
qualities of natural and lucid style. But some are clear, accurate, in- 
structive, and interesting. Others, in striving to acquire a factitious 
elegance, become pompous and inflated. Some aim at the antique man- 
ner, and become affected ; others, writing in the language of their times, 
fall into the corrupt forms of the vulgar Byzantine Greek ; and others, 
finally, are marked by all the peculiarities of idiom and construction which 
belong to the spoken Greek of the present day. In passages of the best, 
there is often vivid description and stirring eloquence ; in the worst, uni- 
form tediousness. 

§ 10. Zosimus wrote on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, in 
a style clear and concise ; but being a Pagan, he is described by Photius 
as one " impious in religion, and howling against the pious." Procopius 
lived in the sixth century, and is conspicuous for having been the secretaiy 
of Belisarius, whom he accompanied in his wars. In literary ability he 
was, perhaps, the best of all the Byzantine historians, and his style is a 



A. D. 1137.J BYZANTINE HISTORIANS. 589 

nearer approach than any of them to the classic models. He wrote the 
history of the wars with the Persians, Vandals, and Goths, besides other 
works, particularly a scandalous chronicle of the court. Agathias, a lawyer 
and scholar of the same century, besides love poems, which are lost, wrote 
a continuation of the history of Procopius, in a somewhat bombastic 
style. In the next two centuries there is but little of any interest. It 
was an ev^l time for literature. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centu- 
ries- there was more literary activity, if not a revival of letters. In the 
tenth century reigned the learned and excellent Emperor Constantine 
Porphyi-ogenitus, who, besides being a connoisseur in art, wrote many im- 
portant works on history and administration, and labored assiduously to 
encourage literature, and to improve the education of the times. The 
greatest name, in the eleventh century, is that of Michael Psellos, who 
was the prodigy of his age. The Emperor gave him the title of Prince 
of Philosophers. His works were on the most extraordinary variety of 
subjects, theological, philosophical, mathematical, legal, and one on the 
operation of Demons. Many of them still remain unpublished. The 
style is said to be perspicuous and elegant, and worthy of a better age. 
To the twelfth century belong Anna Comnena, and her husband, Nice- 
phorus Bryennius. This illustrious family presents a pleasing picture of 
happiness and literary accomplishments. Bryennius was a Greek noble- 
man, of a family distinguished for its antiquity and the many high places 
which had been held by members of it. He became the confidential 
friend and adviser of the Emperor Alexis Comnenos immediately upon 
his accession to the throne. As a mark of his respect the Emperor 
created a new title, Panhypersebastos, All-superlatively-august, and, what 
was still more to the purpose, bestowed on him the hand of his beauti- 
ful daughter, Anna Comnena, who was equally remarkable for the 
graces of her person and her intellectual accomplishments. Bryen- 
nius took a leading part in the wars of the age, and was one of the 
most skilful diplomatists at the imperial court. His various talents and 
his affable manners made him so great a favorite, that his ambitious 
wife endeavored, but without success, to persuade her father to name 
him his successor ; and the only serious fault chargeable upon his life 
is, that he listened to her suggestion, and endeavored to deprive his 
young brother-in-law of the crown, on the death of Alexis. Failing in this, 
his estates were confiscated, and he, with his wife, was banished to CEnoe, 
on the Black Sea, where they lived in retirement several years. He was, 
however, restored to favor, and died, soon after 11 o7, at Constantinople. 
The peculiar interest of the period in which he lived arises from the cir- 
cumstance that the Crusaders at this time bronglit the Western and Eastern 
powers into contact and collision ; and it was by his prudent counsels that 
the Emperor was chiefly guided in the first differences between himself 
and the crusading princes. Bryennius wrote a history, in four books, of 



590 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI 

the events of whicli he had been a contemporary and in great part an eye- 
witness. He left it incomplete, covering a period of a little more than 
twenty years, from about A. d. 1057 to 1078, — intending to bring it down 
to the reign of Alexis, but being interrupted by death. " This mighty 
task," says he to his mother-in-law, the Empress, " thou, my wisest in- 
tellect and inspiration, thou hast laid upon me ; thou hast commanded me to 
write the deeds of Alexis the Great, who having fallen on troublous times, 
and assuming the power when the affairs of the Empire were fallen to 

the earth, raised them up and reinstated them in their greatest glory 

I dare not assume to write this history, nor to compose a eulogy on him ; 
for this, scarcely would the power of Thucydides and the eloquence of 
Demosthenes suffice. I presume only to furnish the means to those who 
desire to celebrate his deeds ; and therefore let this work be called the 
materials of history." Notwithstanding the modest estimate he ventures to 
entertain of his own ability, his work is written in a very manly style, 
and shows the experience of a man versed in affairs, and the calm and 
cool judgment of the philosophic statesman.- 

Anna Comnena was considerably younger than her husband, being 
born in 1083. She was celebrated as the handsomest woman in the high- 
est society of Constantinople ; and her accomplishments in literature were 
equally the admiration of the scholars, philosophers, and poets by whom 
she was surrounded. The domestic happiness she enjoyed is certainly a 
remarkable and bright spot in the general degeneracy of the age. Her 
married life lasted more than forty years, and the only interruption to its 
felicity was its close by the death of her husband. Her palace was the 
resort of the literary men and of the most brilliant society in the twelfth 
century, — the centre of the arts and sciences of Constantinople for many 
years. She survived her husband, and worthily employed the remainder 
of her days in finishing the task he left incomplete at his death. It is the 
life of her father Alexis, — under the name of the Alexiad ; and though 
abounding in rhetorical faults, it is one of deep interest. She writes 
with the partiality of a daughter for her father, and with a good deal of 
ambitious vanity, — pi^esenting in this respect a strong contrast to the 
simple and honest style of her husband, for whom she cherished the 
most unbounded affection as long as she lived. She describes him 
'' as a man surpassing in personal beauty, fineness of understanding, and 
eloquence of speech, all that lived in his time ; he was a wonder to 
look at and listen to, and in all respects a most distinguished person." 
She then recounts the circumstances under which he began his history, 
and its interruption by his death, — "a misfortune to the subject," she 
adds, " and the loss of mijch pleasure to the readers." " What har- 
mony and what' grace were in his words, those know best who were most 
familiar with his writings." She attributes his death to his unceasing la- 
bors, and his exposure during the long campaigns he served in. As she 



A. D. 1446.] BTZANTINE HISTORIANS. 591 

Writes these things, her soul, she says, is weary with sorrow, and her eyes 
fill with tears, recalling to memory the graces of his person, and the gifts 
of his mind, worthy of a higher than royal dignity. Her affliction would 
move the hardest heart to sympathy. But she wipes her tears, and com- 
mences her task. 

The work is certainly a remarkable illustration of the literary cul 
ture of the twelfth century, and proves that the women of the highest 
classes were carefully trained in literary discipline. The narrative is 
generally clear, though at times ambitious and turgid; and the period 
embraced by the work is of the highest interest, — especially the latter 
part, the period of the Crusades. It has something of the spirit ot 
hero-worship and self-worship ; and when she enlarges on her own ac- 
complishments, one is tempted to smile. But, remembering that she 
was an emperor's daughter, and surrounded through a long life by the 
adulations of a luxurious court, — that she was beautiful beyond her con- 
temporaries, and that amidst the dangerous influences of the times she 
kept the purity of her character untainted, exhibited a lofty example 
of domestic virtue, and cherished with undiminished ardor the common 
affections of daily life, which grace the highest station, while they lend a 
sanctity to the lowliest, — we may admit that her vanity is pai-donable and 
her pedantry not without excuse.* 

We will mention only one more of these writers, Laonicos Chalcocon- 
dylas, who belongs to the fifteenth century. Very few incidents of his life 
have been preserved, except that he was a native of Athens, and employed 
by the Emperor John Pateologus YII. as ambassador to Amurath or 
Murad II. in 1446, that he probably lived till towards the end of the 
century, and consequently witnessed the downfall of Constantinople, the 
conquest of Greece, and perhaps the overthrow of Trebizond, by the 
Turks. He seems to have remained in Constantinople, or returned after 
the Sultan had introduced some degree of order in the affairs of the capital, 

* A few sentences will show the stj'le into which she rose, when she aimed at being par- 
ticularly fine. It is fair to say that the whole book is by no means in this vein. 

"Time, rolling on, irresistibly and for ever, whirls and sweeps away all existing things, 
and sinks them in the depths of oblivion, — where lie both those of little worth and tiiose 
which are great and worthy of remembrance, — or, as the tragedy hath it, brings to light 
the hidden things, and hides those that are conspicuous. But the word of history is the 
strongest dike against the stream of time, and checks its mighty current, binding up and 
holding together what is therein, that it may not glide down into the depths of Lethe. 
Knowing this, — I, Anna, daughter of the imperial Alexis and Eirene, child and nursling 
of the purple, — not unskilled in letters, but accomplished in the Greek to the highest per- 
fection, — not unpractised in rhetoric, but having carefully read the treatises of Aristotle 
arfd the Dialogues of Plato, — and having strengthened my intellect by the quaternion of the 
sciences, — (for it is myduty,and notamatter of self-gratification, to set forth thosequalifi- 
cations which either natui-e or the study of the sciences has given me, or God has bestowed. 
on me from above, or occasion has contributed.) — I, Anna, desire, in this my composition, 
to narrate the deeds of my father, undeserving to be betrayed to forgetfulness, or swep* 
away by the stream of time into the ocean of oblivion." 



592 . HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LI. 

and formed one of the small circle of literary men who still kept up the 
spirit of ancient scholarship. He wrote a work, in ten books, on the his- 
tory of the Turks, from their origin down to the conquests of Mohammed 
II., and the best judges have pronounced it eminently worthy of 
credit. He was a wise and sound judge of affairs ; a scholar of great and 
various learning ; and his work is one of the best sources for the history 
of the decline of the Greek Empire. His style is not perfe<;tly simple, but 
affects too much the classical phraseology of antiquity. We feel the labor 
of the writer a little too much ; but it is perspicuous, and in many places 
exceedingly^ interesting and animated. He introduces here and there cu- 
rious episodes upon the condition and character of the Western nations, 
sometimes correct, and always worthy of attention, as coming from an 
Athenian writer of the fifteenth century. Germany, France, and England 
are described with some detail.* 

In an historical point of view, the most striking part of this very inter- 
esting work is the minute, graphic, and vivid description, in the eighth 
book, of the capture and sack of Constantinople. It is more affecting thao 
the stately j)icture Gibbon has given of that great event ; because it is 
written with the sense of the reality which so tremendous a tragedy 
must have left in the mind of a contemporary, and that profound sym- 
pathy with its horrors and sufferings, which a countryman, a patriot, 
and a victim cannot but feel, whenever he calls up the image of so dire a 
catastrophe ; and when he says, at the conclusion, " Such were the events 
that befell the Greeks of Byzantium, — and this disaster appears to me to 
surpass in woe all that have ever happened in the world," — he carries 
the reader along with liim, and we close the book with the feeling of pity 
and terror which the tragic downfall of a nation ought always to inspire. 

* After describing the geographical position and political arrangements of the British 
Isles, he says : " The king could not easily take away his principality from any of the great 
V»rds, nor would they submit to him, contrary to their own usages. The kingdom has 
sufifered many calamities from civil wars, &c. The island does not produce wine, nor many 
fruits; but it bears corn and barley and honey. They have the most beautiful wool in the 
world, so that they weave immense quantities of cloth. They speak a language that re- 
sembles no other; neither German, nor French, nor that of any of the surrounding nations. 
They have a custom throughout the island, that, when a visitor enters the house of a friend, 
the wife receives him with a kiss, as a preliminary to the hospitalities of the house. The 
city of London is the most powerful and prosperous of all the cities in these islands, and 
inferior to none in the West; and in the martial valor of its inhabitants, it is superior to all 
who live towards the setting sun." He gives many other particulars, but these are the 
most characteristic. He evidently did not understand the English language, and probably 
was mistaken in some of the customs of the country ; but his notices of the industry and 
martial virtues of the English people show that he had well observed the qualities Inat 
aave made them the foremost power in the world. 



A. D. 1453.] EFFiiCT OK THE FALL OF COXsTAXTLNOrLE. 



iJdo 




Side View of the Theseum. 



CHAPTER Ln. 



GREECE UNDER THE TURKS. 



I 1. Effect of the Fall of Constantinople on Western Europe. § 2. Efforts to combine the 
Christian Powers agamst the Turks. ^ 3. Greek Literature in the West before tlie Fall 
of Constantinople. § 4. Diffusion of Greek Literature after the Fall of Constantino- 
ple. § 5. Wars of the Venetians with the Turks. Battle of Lepanto. Expedition of 
Morosini. ^ 6. Efforts of the Turks to recover the Peloponnesus. Peace of Passaro- 
witz. § 7. Turkish Organization of Greece. Extortions of the Pachas. Taxes. Ha- 
ratch. Land Tax. Other Burdens. Condition of the Raj^ahs. § 8. The naiSofxaCcoiJi'a, 
or Levy of Children for the Janizaries. History of the Janizaries. ^ 9. Genera] Con- 
dition of Greece. Greek Islands. § 10. Preservation of the Greek Nationality durhi"- 
the Period of Turkish Dommation. Armatoloi, Klephtai. Character of the Klephts! 
Klephtic Ballads. § 11. Preparations for the Revolution. Rhegas. Coraes. 

§ 1. The fall of Constantinople sent a shock throughout the Christian 
nations of Western Europe. The capture of Constantinople bj the Cru- 
saders had destroyed the most precious memorials of ancient art and 
wealth in the city ; had exhausted its resources, and broken down its mar- 
tiaUnergies ; had divided the Empire into fragments for the benefit of 
then- own princes, driving out the native rulers. And when, sixty years 
later, they were themselves driven back from a conquest they had 
wrongfully held, the Emperors of Constantinople reassumed an empire 
shorn of its power and splendor, not only by Saracens and Turks, bu/ 
75 



594 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIl, 

more fatally still by Christians of another branch of one common faith ; 
so that, when the final struggle came, the only wonder was, that a cap- , 
ital, over which conflagration and plunder had so often swept, resisted so 
long and with so much spirit the conquering energies of a people in the 
full impulse of their march towards extended empire. 

§ 2. The Pope endeavored in vain to combine the nations of Europe 
for the expulsion of the Turk ; war was actually declared in the Diet at 
Frankfort, in 1454; but that was all. Pius II. convened a Congress at 
Mantua, in 1459 ; and the princes of Europe agi-eed to furnish large 
means for the crusade, which the Pope was to lead in person ; but when 
the head of the Church arrived at Ancona to embark, he found every 
promise and engagement had been violated, and none were there except a 
rabble rout of vagabonds, clamoring for service and for pay. The danger 
proved less than had been anticipated. Mohammed II. met with a gallant 
resistance from the Hungarians, and was repulsed by the Knights of St. 
John from the island of Rhodes. Li the mountains of Epeirus, the heroic 
chieftain w^iose exploits are sung by his contemporaries under the name 
of Scanderbeg kept him at bay for twenty years. The successors of Mo- 
hammed were inferior to him in martial vigor, and thus the tide of Ottoman 
conquests was, at least temporai'ily, stayed, and the alai-ms of Europe 
somewhat quieted. 

§ 3. From the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, and especially 
after the ahenation of the Greek and Latin Churches, the influence of 
Greek literature had been decaying, until nearly all knowledge of it had 
died out in the West. Only here and there a name is retained, among 
the few who kept alive a love of letters in Europe, as having some tinc- 
ture of Grecian learning. In the East, libraries of manuscripts had been 
formed, by the labors of centuries, not only connected with the schools of 
public instruction, but in the monasteries. The ancient classics had been 
multiplied, in parchment copies, carefully and handsomely transcribed, by 
the inmates of these establishments ; but doubtless many of these perished 
in the successive plunderings of the capital, and the final loss of many 
of the most precious treasures of ancient genius is to be traced to the 
barbarous conduct of the Crusaders, whose very name Anna Comnena 
thought it an insult to the Greek language to record, and to the Ottomans, 
whose agency was scarcely more destructive. But before these pil- 
laging enterprises took place, now and then an individual found his way 
from the schools of Constantinople, with a supply of Grecian literature, 
and, establishing himself in the West, communicated his treasures to a 
narrow circle of pupils and friends. As early as the seventh century, 
the Pope sent to England a Greek ecclesiastic born at Tarsus, who 
became Archbishop of Canterbury, and, having carried with him a 
quantity of manuscripts, introduced some knowledge of Greek into the 
Anglo-Saxon Church. The Venerable Bede and Alcuin are bright names 



A.. D. U23.] GREEK LIT::RATLTRE I?; ITALY. 595 

among the earliest restorers of learning ; and Erigena, and other Irish 
ecclesiastics, even knew something of the philosophy of Plato and Aris- 
totle. In 1240, John Basing, Archdeacon of St. Albans, brought a num- 
ber of Greek books from Athens ; and Roger Bacon was not ignorant of 
the Greek language. 

But these studies were more assiduously cultivated in Italy, as might 
have been expected, than in any other country out of the Byzantine Em- 
pire, in the Middle Ages. Particularly, from the eleventh century, many 
individuals are known in literary history for their knowledge of Greek, — 
not very extensive, to be sure, but still worth something. Among these, 
for instance, Papias is classified, on the strength of a quotation of five lines 
from Hesiod. But the revival of Greek studies in Italy properly dates 
from the time of Petrarch and Boccaccio, in the fourteenth century. Italy 
was visited by many ecclesiastical Greeks, who adhered to the Pope of 
Rome, in the quarrel between fehe two Churches ; and there are to this day, 
both in Ancona and Rome, Greek churches, with a Greek liturgy, ac- 
knowledging the supreme authority of the Pope. Several learned Cala- 
briaq^, about this time, after having long resided in Greece, had much to 
do with the introduction of the Greek language among the scholars and 
poets of Italy. Barlaam, sent as ambassador by the Emperor to Italy, 
endeavored to teach Petrarch Greek ; but whether he was too much ab- 
sorbed by his fantastic passion for Laura, and by the composition of his 
amorous sonnets, it is certain, from his own confession, that the tuneful poet 
never got far enough to read Homer in the original, — which he pathetical- 
ly laments. Boccaccio had better success with Leontios Pilatos, for whom 
he procured the appointment of public teacher at Florence, although he de- 
scribes him as long-haired, hirsute-bearded, and very dirty. About the 
end of the fourteenth century, Emanuel Chrysoloras, a man of high rank, 
and distinguished in the diplomacy of the Byzantine Empire, was induced 
to emigrate to Italy, and taught the Greek language and literature in sever- 
al of the principal cities. Among his scholars were the most eminent Ital- 
ian men of letters. In 1423, two hundred and thirty-eight manuscripts, 
including Plato, Diodorus, Pindar, Callimachus, and others, were brought 
from Greece to Italy, by a Sicilian named Aui'ispa. Filelfo, a scholar well 
known in literary history in the same age, not only brought home from 
Greece a large number of manuscripts, but became Professor of Greek 
and Latin at Florence, exciting, as he himself says, the wonder and admi- 
ration of the whole city. " All love me," continues the self-complacent 
Professor, " all honor me, and exalt me to the skies with their praises. 
When I walk through the city, not only the first citizens, but the noblest 
ladies, yield me the pass, to show in what high honor they hold me. I 
have daily more than four hundred hearers ; and these for the most part 
distinguished persons, and of senatorial rank." 

As the dangers that threatened the overthrow of the Greek Empire 



596 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LII, 

drew nearer, emigration to Italy became more frequent. Theodore Gaza, 
well known in Greek philosophy, fled from Thessalonica in 1430, when 
that city was taken by the Turks. Bessarion of Trebizond was made a 
cardinal in 1439, and twice came near being elected Pope ; and having 
been employed in many high functions, received from the Pope, who 
affected to consider himself sole head of the Church, the titular dignity of 
Patriarch of Constantinople. He was a great promoter of Greek hter- 
ature, and wherever he lived, his house was the resort of all those w^ho 
cultivated the sciences and the arts. In 1468, he presented his magnifi- 
cent library to the republic of Venice, and the famous Aldine editions of 
the classics are founded chiefly on the manuscripts it contained. Here 
too, the manuscript of Panaretus was found by Professor Fallmereyer. 
George of Trebizond taught Greek at Vicenza, Venice, and Rome. Johan- 
nes Argyropoulos, a native of Constantinople, arrived in Italy in 1434, and 
was called by the Medici to Florence in 1456. He went to Paris to so 
licit the assistance of the king of France in purchasing his family, who had 
fallen into the hands of the Turks. He taught Greek fifteen years at 
Florence, and afterwards for some time at Rome. Here the celebrated 
Reuchlin being present at one of his lectures on Thucydides, the old Pro- 
fessor invited the young German to interpret a passage of the historian. 
He was so much astonished at the facility with which Reuchlin accom- 
plished the task, that he exclaimed, " Exiled Greece has crossed the 
Alps." Gemistos Plethon, a man of the highest rank at the imperial court, 
of great learning and probity of character, and a voluminous writer, went 
to Florence as a deputy of the Greek Church, in 1438, where he became 
acquainted with Cosmo de' Medici, and during his residence there opened 
a school for the explanation of the Platonic philosophy, of which he was 
an ardent and eloquent advocate. Cosmo embraced his views, and Platonism 
became the rage of the literary people of that capital. The Platonic Acad- 
emy, which afterwards produced many eminent scholars, owes its origin 
to Plethon. He afterwards returned to Greece, and died in the Pelopon- 
nesus, at the age, it is supposed, of about one hundred years. These few 
names will serve to show that the literary tendencies of Italy were 
favorabJe to j)rogress ; and that the diplomatic intercourse between the 
Churches of Rome and Byzantium, the interchange of visits among the 
literary men of the two countries, and the introduction of numerous manu- 
scripts from Greece and Constantinople into the chief ^Italian cities, had 
made a great and almost providential preparation for those Greek scholars 
who, having witnessed the downfall of the capital of their nation and the 
seat of their religion, and the subjection of their nation to the despotism of 
the Turks, fled westward, and carried with them the light of the East. 

§ 4. Of course the number of Greek refugees was very considerable, 
after the fall of Constantinople. Constantine Lascaris, belonging to one of 
the imperial families, became instructor of the princess Hippolyta, daugh- 



A. D. 1478] VENETIAN WAR. 597 

ter of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. Afterwards lie taught in several 
of the Italian cities, and finally died at Messina, having bequeathed his li- 
brary to that city. It was afterwards transported to Spain, and now 
forms part of the collection of the Escorial. Another Lascaris, a relative 
of Constantine, was employed by Lorenzo de' Medici in collecting books in 
the East, and was afterwards distinguished at ti^ie courts of Cliarles VIII. 
iind Louis XII. in JFrance. When Leo X. was raised to the Papal throne 
he placed Lascaris at the head of a college he had founded in Rome for 
the education of Greeks. The Pope, in a letter addressed to Fr'ancis I., 
describes Lascaris as a man distinguished for his illustrious birth, his liter- 
ary acquirements, his experience in affairs, the purity of his morals, and 
gentleness of his manners. He died at Rome at the age of ninety. De- 
metrius Chalcocondylas, an Athenian, and perhaps a I'elative of the histo- 
rian, taught Greek at Perugia and Florence ; afterwards he removed to 
Milan, Other distinguished names are Michael Apostolius, Callistos, and 
Masuros, Professor of Greek at Padua, where he knew Erasmus, who 
speaks of him as wonderfully learned in the Latin tongue ; thence he went 
to Venice, and became an assistant of the elder Aldus in the publication of 
his beautiful editions. Moschos, a Lacedemonian, son of an old teacher, 
who continued at Sparta after the catastrophe of 1453, was Professor of 
Greek at Ferrara and Mantua, and wrote a poem on the story of Helen. 
In the same century the Greek language was taught in Paris by Hermo- 
nymos of Sparta, and other scholars of the same nation. In 1474, Con- 
tablacos opened a school in Basle. The scholars of Germany, hearing of 
the literary excitement produced by these Greeks, hastened over into Italy, 
became their pupils, and purchased many books, with which they enriched 
the libraries of their native land. The most eminent of these was Reuch- 
lin, one of the ablest, if not the ablest, restorer of learning in Germany ; 
but his name is now chiefly known from its connection with the controversy 
that once raged on the pronunciation of the Greeks. Thus, a second time 
in the history of civilization, the arts and letters that embellish life 
were scattered by the Greeks over the world, after a tremendous na- 
tional catastrophe. 

§ 5. At the time when Mohammed 11. invaded the Peloponnesus, the 
Venetians were still in possession of some places in the Peninsula. They 
held, in ftict, Pylos, Corone, Methone, Nauplia, and Argos ; besides the 
Ionian Islands, Naupactos, Eubcea, and Crete. The Venetians and 
Turks soon engaged in a desperate struggle, which found a temporary lull 
in the armistice of 1478, which lasted for about twenty years, into the 
reign of Mohammed's son and successor, Bajazet. The condition of the 
Greeks during these destructive wars was wretched in the extreme. 
Many places in Greece changed mastei-s frequently during these years. 
Sometimes the Greeks took part with the Christians in the struggle, 
' and when the Christians were conquered, they suffered the most bar- 



598 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ClIAP. LII 

barous treatment at the hands of the Turks ; and if they remained neu- 
tral, the heaviest calamities of the war fell upon them. By degrees the 
Turks got possession of Greece, and the islands, except those along the 
western coast, which now constitute the Ionian Republic. Euhoea was 
conquered in 1470; Rhodes in 1522, by the Sultan Solyman I. In 1570 
Selim II. took Cyprus. The celebrated battle of Lepanto, or Naupactus, 
was fought by the confederated fleets of the Pope, the king of Spain, 
and the Venetian republic, amounting to two hundred ships, and the Turk- 
ish fleet of three hundred. " For many hours," says an old writer, " di- 
verse and doubtful was the whole face of the battle ; as fortune offered 
unto every man his enemy, so he fought ; according as every man's dispo- 
sition put him into courage or fear, or as he met with more or fewer ene- 
mies, so was there here and there sometimes victory and sometimes loss. 
The chance of war, in one place, lifteth up the vanquished, and in another 
overthroweth the victorious ; all was full of terror, error, sorrow, and con- 
fusion." After five hours of desperate fighting the Turks gave way, and 
the triumph of the allies was complete. One hundred and thirty galleys 
were taken, while the rest of the hostile ships were dashed upon the rocks, 
sunk in the sea, or consumed by fire. Thirty-five hundred were taken 
prisoners, and twenty-five thousand fell in the battle. Had the Christian 
powers followed up this great victory, they might probably have driven 
the Turks back into Asia ; but they neglected to pursue their advantage, 
and in the following year the Sultan Selym was able to put to sea again 
with two hundred and twenty sail. The allies abandoned all farther ef- 
forts, and Venice made peace, surrendering to the Sultan the kingdom of 
Cyprus, and several fortresses in Epeirus. A contemporary remarked, 
that the destruction of the Turkish fleet was merely cutting off the Sul- 
tan's beard, which a few days would restore, while the surrender of 
Cyprus was the amputation of an arm from Venice, which time could 
neither remedy nor reproduce. 

Greece was now incorporated, without further struggle, into the Turkish 
empire, and placed at the disposal of Turkish governors. In 1670, the 
Turks conquered from the Venetians, after a war of nearly thirty years' 
duration, the important island of Crete, at an expense of two hundred 
thousand men, and one hundred million golden crowns ; but in the reign of 
the same Sultan, Mohammed IV., in the year 1 684. the Turks having 
experienced a great defeat at Vienna, the Venetians joined the Christian 
league, and Morosini, having the command of a powerful fleet, attacked 
and reduced Santa Maura and Prevesa, and in the following year com- 
menced his operations against the Turks in the Morea. The most impor- 
tant posts, Pylos, Methone, and at last Nauplia, one after the other, capitu- 
lated. During these movements, the Greeks generally flew to arms, eager 
to throw otf the Turkish yoke. In the course of two years Morosini 
reconquered the whole Peloponnesus, with the aid of the Greeks, and 



A. D. 1718.] ORGANIZATION OF GREECE. 599 

in 1687, following up his successes, sailed into the harbor of Peirteus on 
the 21st of September, and immediately, landing without opposition, marched 
to Athens, and took possession of the town. The Turks fortified them- 
selves in the Acropolis, and refused to surrender. Batteries were raised 
on the neighboring heights of the Museion and the Pnyx, and the bombard- 
ment of the Acropolis commenced on the 26th. Unfortunately, the Turks 
had stored their ammunition in the Parthenon, and a bomb falling into 
the magazine, threw down all the central portion of that wonderful work, 
which had, up to that time, remained in a good state of preservation, with 
the greater part of the sculptures, which adorned the tympana, the metopes, 
and the frieze of the cella. The firing continued for several days longer, 
but at last, all the wooden buildings of the Acropolis having been consumed 
by a great conflagration, the garrison held out a flag of truce. The Turks, 
with their wives and children, were allowed five days to prepare for their 
departure- Three thousand left the place ; but it is said by Sir Paul 
Rycault, that three hundred Turks, rather than leave Athens, chose to 
abjure the Moslem faith, and were baptized into the Catholic Church. 
The Venetians retained possession of Athens only a few months, the ad- 
"miral needing his troops elsewhere, and these brilliant successes had no 
permanent result Venetians and Turks were alike wearied with the 
war, and in 1699 the peace of Carlowitz left only the Peloponnesus in 
the possession of the republic. The conquest of the Morea is the last 
triumph of the Venetians, and this was due to the genius of Morosini, 
who received the designation of the Peloponnesian. 

§ 6. The Turks made gigantic preparations to avenge their losses and 
recover the conquered country. In 1715 the Grand Vizier of Achmet III. 
burst into the Peloponnesus with an army of one hundred thousand men, 
supported by a fleet of one hundred sail, and, notwithstanding the efforts 
of the Knights of Malta and the Grand Duke of Tuscany to assist the 
Venetians in the defence of Greece, Delfino, who had been left in com- 
mand, was compelled to abandon the Morea. The Turks, advancing 
upon Corinth, butchered on the spot one half of the capitulating garrison, 
reserving the remainder to be executed under the walls of Nauplia, within 
sight of the Venetians. Argos was recovered without striking a blow; 
Nauplia was betrayed, and the city and fortress entered at midnight, and 
the inhabitants put to the sword. In 1718, the peace of Passarowitz sur- 
rendered the whole of Greece again to Turkey ; and so she remained 
enslaved, with only a few partial movements towards emancipation, until 
the revolution which commenced in 1821. 

§ 7. In organizing his newly conquered territories, Mohammed II. di- 
vided them into military departments, called Pachalics, and these again 
were subdivided into Moussemlics, Agalics, and Vaivodalics ; and these 
were subjected to a supreme magisti-ate entitled Rumeli Valesi, or Grand 
Judge of Roumelia. The Pachas were, like the satraps of the old Persian 



600 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LII 

empire, quite independent of each other, and often engaged in mutual 
hostiUties, for purposes of conquest or plunder. The number of pachalics 
in Greece differed at different times ; and in some parts of the country, 
on account of its mountainous character and the spirit of the inhabitants, 
it was never possible to establish the Turkish system thoroughly. Some 
towns and smaller districts were govei'ned by Beys, Agas, and Vaivodes. 
About 1812 there were five pachalics, the chief of which was that of Jo- 
annina, or Albania, under the government of the celebrated Ali Pacha, 
including Epeirus, Acarnania, ^tolia, Phocis, the greater part of Thessaly, 
and the western portions of Macedonia and Bceotia, and uniting into one 
the territories which at an earlier period had constituted five or six pacha- 
lics. Attica and Lebadeia were each under the command of a Vaivode. 
Zagora was under the administration of a Greek Primate ; the North of 
Macedonia was broken up into numerous agalics ; the Morea, with the 
exception of Mane, was under the Pacha of Tripolizza, with eight or nine 
Beys, and other inferior chiefs subordinate to him. The principal islands, 
and some of the coast districts, were under the Capitan Pacha, who visited 
them annually to collect the tribute ; the others were in the hands of the 
Divan, or belonged to some of the pachalics. The mass of the popu- 
lation was at once reduced to the condition of tenants of the crown, 
with the exception of a few of the old families in the Morea, who 
were suffered to retain their properties on the payment of large trib- 
utes. The whole system of administration, if that could be called a 
system, whose only principles were rapacity, corruption, and venality, 
was one which tended inevitably to the extinction of every manly trait 
in the character of the people. The Pachas of Greece, as well as 
of other provmces in the empire, purchased their appointments by the 
payment of large sums into the imperial treasury ; the Porte usually 
bestowing the office on the highest bidders. They accordingly indemni- 
fied themselves by extortions practised upon their unhappy subjects. Be- 
sides this, they must contribute a large amount annually to the revenues 
of the empire. Says D'Arvieux, a French writer, " The viceroys, local 
governors, and other officers of the Ottoman Empire are farmers of rev- 
enues, and are obliged to remit the sums agreed upon to the Grand Vizier, 
under pain of sending their own heads to the imperial treasury. No ex- 
cuse is received ; the money must be forthcoming, even if there is none ; 
and as their life and fortune depend on their punctuality in paying, they 
resort to every means of accomplishing the end." In their provinces, the 
power of the Pachas was absolute, and their state was maintained with 
Oriental pomp. They usually acquired enormous wealth, by means of the 
variety of taxes and extortions they could with impunity enforce. Ali 
Pacha's dominion extended over four hundred villages, and his annual 
income was about one million dollars. The Beys and Agas exercised 
a similar authority. The only restraint upon these powerful chieftains 



Chap. LII] CONDITION OF GREECE. 601 

was the probability of the bowstring, whenever they fell under the dis- 
pleasure of the Porte, or it became desirable to recruit an exhausted treas- 
ury by confiscating the ill-gotten wealth of an overgrown Pacha. The 
Christian population of the conquered territories were obliged to pay a life- 
tax, called the haratch, which was regarded at first as a composition or 
compromise for the privilege of keeping their heads on their shoulders. 
In some places this tax was paid for children from the moment of birth ; in 
others, from a certain age, five, eight, twelve, or fifteen years ; the amount, 
too, varied. According to Colonel Leake, the tax for a whole family usu- 
ally amounted to about £ 2 ; but any individual subject to this impost was 
liable to frequent and insolent examination in the street, and on failing to 
produce his legal receipt was forced to pay it to the next official authority, 
whether he had paid it before or not. The land-tax amounted, at different 
times and places, to one twentieth, one twelfth, one tenth, or one seventh of 
the produce of the soil ; at the entrance of every town, duties were paid 
on cattle, provisions, wine, fire-wood. Various costly restrictions on com- 
merce ; composition for exemption from labor on the public works ; arbi- 
trary requisitions for the service of the Sultan ; one tenth of the value in 
dispute in legal proceedings ; avanias, or moneys exacted from the inhab- 
itants of a district where a crime had been committed, on the ground that 
they might have prevented it ; requisitions to supply a certain proportion 
of wheat at a nominal price, to be stored up at Constantinople, or sold at 
an enormous profit, — are only a few of the more prominent forms under 
which extortions were practised by the Turkish governors. Says Sir James 
Emerson Tennent, " So undefined was the system of extortion, and so uncon- 
trolled the power of those to whom its execution was intrusted, that the 
evil spread over the whole system of administration, and insinuated itselt 
into every relation and ordinance of society, till there w^ere few actions or 
occupations of the Greeks that were not burdened with the scrutiny and 
interference of his masters, and none that did not suffer, in a greater or 
less degree, from their heartless rapine." * The rayahs, or common 
laboring classes, were reduced to the condition of serfs, subjected to every 
species of oppression, with no prospect or possibility of improving their 
condition, but condemned to hopeless slavery and degi-adation. 

§ 8. There was a most cruel contribution of male children, who were 
torn from their parents, subjected to the rites of the Mohammedan faith, 
and employed in various offices, menial or other, according to their 
ability, or placed in the corps of the Janizaries. This terrible Preto- 
rian Guard of the Sultans Avas created by Orkan, the second Sultan of 

* In the almost endless list of petty occasions on whicli the most vexations extortions 
were practised, some are almost too ridiculous to be mentioned; for example, one source of 
"avenue was called tooth-money^ to remunerate the Pacha and his suite for the fatiorue of 
eating the food prepared and furnished them b.y the Greeks, during their journeys for the 
Bolleclion of taxes. 

76 



602 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LII 

the Ottoman dynasty, in the fourteenth century, and consisted at first of 
young Christians, taken captive in war and trained up in the Moham- 
medan faith, and disciphne of arms. When organized, the troop was 
blessed by an aged dervish. " The soldiery wliich you have just created," 
said he to the sovereign, "shall be Jani-Tscheri, — New Troop; it shall 
be victorious in every combat ; its face shall be white, its arm formidable, 
its sabre sharp-edged, and its ari-ow piercing." It became, in the course 
of time, a formidable power, not only to the Sultan's enemies, but to the 
Sultan himself Revolutions were made, at the beck of this band ; Sul- 
tans were enthroned and Sultans were deposed, according to tlieir licen- 
tious will. It was one of those instruments of despotism wliich most 
emphatically turn to plague their inventors. The supply of l)oys to re- 
cruit this body, in Greece, amounted to about one thousand annually, and 
was afterwards increased. The imposition was called the TratSo/ja^w/ia, 
or child-tribute, — the form the impost assumed after the captives taken 
in war ceased to be sufficient. It continued down to the middle of the 
seventeenth century, and the whole number' of those furnished by Greece 
alone amounted, according to the estimate of one of the Professors in the 
University of Athens, to little less than five hundred thousand.* After- 
wards, the recruits were taken from the children of the Janizaries. This 
mihtary organization existed until 1826, when Sultan Mahmoud, finding 
their power and turbulence obstacles in the way of his projected reforms, 
resolved on disbanding them, and putting his armies on the footing of 
the Europeans. Thirty thousand rose in rebellion ; but the Sultan, 
having consulted the highest authorities of the Moslem law, and received 
their solemn sanction to the measure, unrolled the standard of the Prophet, 
and rallied all true Moslems to the support of the throne. Fifty thousand 
men marched against them, surrounded the barracks in the Hippodrome, 
set them on fire, and slaughtered those who attempted to escape. So per- 
ished, by flame and sword, a body of men descended from Christian 
cajDtives, or children torn by violence from Christian families, forced to 
apostatize from the religion of their fathers, and for centuries the instru- 
ment and the terror of tyrants. 

§ 9. We have a few notices of the condition of Greece in these times. 
Gerbel, in a work published in the middle of the sixteenth century, in 
speaking of Athens, exclaims : " O tragic change of human power ! a city 
once surrounded by walls, filled with edifices, powerful in arms and w^ealth 
and men, now reduced to a miserable village ; once free and living under 
its own laws, now subjected by the yoke- of slavery to the most cruel and 
brutal masters. Go to Athens and behold, in place of the most magnifi- 
cent works, a mass of deplorable ruins." And Pinet, a French writer, 
at the close of his description, exclaims : " And now, O heavens, there 

* Professor Paparrhegopoulos, 'loropi'a r^s 'EXXaSos- 



Chap. Lll.] preskkvation of gkkkk nationality. 603 

remains only a little castle, and a miserable village, unprotected from 
foxes and wolves, and other wild beasts." Another writer, a little later, 
says : " Greece once was, Athens once was ; now tliei-e is neither Athens 
in Greece, nor Greece in Greece itself." And Ortelius, the geographer, 
says : " Now only a few miserable huts remain ; the place at the present 
day is called Setiae." In 1584, a work was published by Martin Kraus, a 
German pi'ofessor, under the title of Tnrco-Griecia, containing lettei's in 
answer to inquiries addressed by him to the Patrian^h of Constantinople 
and other distinguished Greeks, on the condition of Hellas. They all tell 
the same story of poverty and ignorance, but describe the Greeks as still 
possessing natural brightness of intellect. Says Zygomala, the protho- 
notary of the Patriarch, " They are veiy quick to receive instruction 
whenever they have the chance of being taught by a professor of letters " ; 
but the same writer states that at this time only one school existed, 
and that was at Nauplia, in which ancient Greek was taught. 

The Greek islands, being visited by the Turks only periodically, for 
the collection of tribute, were much less wretched than the mainland, and 
much less exposed to the vices of the Turkish system, whether of plunder- 
ing in general, or of the administration of justice. To sum up all, says 
Sir James Emerson Tennent, " The energies of the nation were either 
cramped in their infancy, or crushed in their mature development ; the 
course of justice was diverted from its genial channels, or fouled by ve- 
nality and religious favoritism ; the fruits of domestic toil were arrested 
by local despots and delegated tyrants, or sacked by the unresisted spoiler 
and the wandering bandit." 

§ 10. There were, however, several causes which tended to the pres- 
ervation of their nationality during this period. In the first place, it 
was impossible for them to combine with their ojipressors and form 
one people, because the moral, intellectual, and social tendencies of the 
two races were mutually repulsive at every point of contact. A second 
cause was the superiority of the Greeks in mental capacity, which 
made it necessary for the Turks to intrust the direction of affairs to 
native leaders, in many parts of the country. A third cause was 
their inextinguishable devotion to the Christian Church, which they 
regarded, from an early period of the Byzantine times, as their ark of 
safety. And finally, the preservation of the national spirit is due in 
a great measure to the fact, that there were parts of Greece which the 
Turks were never able to subdue. The Manotes of the Peloponnesus long 
maintained their independence, and always asserted the right of being 
governed by a native ruler. The warlike iidiabitants of the mountainous 
regions in the North — Olympus, Pelion, Pindus, and Agrapha — steadily 
refused suljmission to the Turks, and were permitted, on the payment of 
an inconsiderable tribute, to retain their arms, and to assume the military 
protection of their native districts. These were called Armatoloi, or bearers 



004 HISTORY OF GREECE. fCnAP. LII, 

of arms, and their districts Armatolics, of which, at the beginning of the 
last century, there were seventeen. Each of these districts or counties 
acknowledged the authority of a chieftain, called Capitanos, or Headman, 
whose office was hereditary, descending with his sword to his oldest son. 
The members of his military corps were called Pallecaria, — a term 
from an ancient Greek word signifying youth, but used in the Mod- 
ern Greek for Braves, and quite as famous in poetry as the term Hero 
in the Iliad. But besides the Armatoles, there were many impatient 
and daring spirits, who, refusing to make any terms with their con- 
querors, betook themselves to a life of lawless rapine among the inac- 
cessible fastnesses of the mountains. These, too, were organized, like the 
Armatoles, into bands commanded by Capitanoi, and bore the honoi-able 
name of KXetprai — the ancient KXeVrai — or Robbers. The same general 
characteristics prevailed in both. Their valor, their endurance of fatigue, 
their well-strung frames, and wonderful activity, were the themes of native 
bards, whose songs almost reproduce the . pictures of ancient Homeric 
times. The Klephts maintained themselves in a wild independence, 
seizing every opportunity of rushing down upon the Turkish villages and 
campsj plundering, killing, or taking captive, and climbing back into their 
Limeria, — their rocky eyries, — before the Turks could rally in pursuit. 
The life of the Klephts placed them beyond the reach of lettered culture. 
They had no more time or taste for reading and writing than the warriors 
of the Iliad, under the walls of Troy ; but, like them, they delighted in 
feats of strength and hardihood, and listened with ecstasy to the ballads 
which perpetuated, in unwritten minstrelsy, the glory of their fathers' 
achievements. Achilles singing in his tent the lays of heroes, is the clas- 
sical prototype of the poet Klepht of Agrapha ; and swift-footed Achilles 
himself could scarcely have overmatched him in speed of running or 
lightness of leap. Nico-Tsara sprang over seven horses abreast, and 
it was no uncommon thing for a full-armed Klepht to outrun the swiftest 
racer. The Capitanos Zacharias, whose exploits in speed of foot are 
commemorated in more than one Klephtic ballad, used, when doing his 
best at running, to strike his ears with his heels. In other more martial 
qualities, he and his band were equally conspicuous. One of the ballads 
says : — 

" Three days he keeps the battle up, three days and nights incessant, 
And snow they ate, and snow they drank, and flash on flash retorted." 

And again : — 

" Three days he keeps the battle up, three days and nights unceasing, 
Nor bread ate he, nor water drank, nor sleep came o'er his eyelids." 

Such men could expect no quarter from the Turks, whenever the chances 
of war threw them into their hands. The tortures they underwent with- 
out a groan make us shudder, as we read the horrible details. 

The euthanasia of a Klepht was death in battle. The favorite toast at 



Chap. LIL] KLEPHTIC BALLADS. 605 

their banquets was koXov ijloKv(Bi, " Welcome the bullet." The bodies of 
those who fell they honored with the name of victims, acpayia, but those 
who died of sickness or age, — of what we call a natural death, — they 
stigmatized as carcasses. Their religious ideas were primitive. The 
principal use \vdiich they conceived a priest could be put to, was to shrive 
the soul of a dying hero ; and monasteries they regarded simply as maga- 
zines of provisions, which it was their duty to help themselves to, when- 
ever occasion served. It was a special triumph to carxy off a Turkish 
Bey or Aga to the mountains, and keep him there under careful watch, 
until "anso;ned by the payment of a pretty large sum. Whenever the 
wives and diughters of the Turks fell into their hands, as not unfrequently 
happened, they were treated with the most scrupulous delicacy and honor, 
— a striking contrast, it is needless to say, to the practice of the Turks; 
and they seldom retorted upon men the cruelties practised on themselves. 
The worst they did was to make them turn the spit in preparing a Kleph- 
tic feast. One of the ballads sj^eaks thus of Kahakoudas, a chief, and his 
troop : — 

" And they had lambs, and roasted them, and rams were duly spitted : 
Five captive Beys they also had, who kept the spits a turning." 

It is not difficult to imagine the charm of this Klephtic life to the young 
and fiery spirits, chafing under the Turkish domination in the lowlands. 
The ballads are full of simplicity and natural feeling, and redolent of the 
racy freshness of the free, wild ways among the mountains. The following 
is literally translated from a collection published last year by Zampelios, 
a Greek gentleman of Leucadia. It illustrates at once the intolerable op- 
pression of the Tui'kish rule, the seducing charm of Klephtic life, and the 
sweet touch of love of nature, which was ever springing freshly up in the 
hearts of this people. 

'' Mother, I tell thee I can no longer be a slave to the Turks ; I cannot ; 
my heart struggles against it. I will take my gun and go and become a 
Klepht ; — to dwell on the mountains among the lofty ridges : to have the 
woo Is for my companions ; to hold converse with the beasts ; to have the 
snow for my covering, the rocks for my bed; — with sons of the Klephts to 
have my daily habitation. I will go, mother ; but weep not ; and give me 
thy blessing. And we will pray, my mother dear, that I may slay many 
a Turk. — And plant the rose and plant the dark carnation ; — and give 
them sugar and musk to drink. And as long, O mother mine, as the flow- 
ers blossom and put forth, thy son is not dead, but is wai-ring with the 
Turks. And if tlie day of sorrow comes, the day of woe, and the two fade 
aVvay and the flowers fall, then I too shall have been slain, and thou may- 
est clothe thyself in black 

" Twelve years have passed and fifteen months, when the roses blos- 
somed, and the buds bloomed ; and one spring morning, the first of May 
w^hen the birds were singing, and the heaven was smiling, at once it thun- 



606 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LII. 

ders, and lightens and darkens. The carnation sighed, the rose wept, — 
both withered up together, and the fiowers fell ; and with them the hap- . 
less mother became a heap of earth." 

§ 11. But towards the end of the century, a remarkable revival took 
place in the intellectual energies of the Hellenic race. Of those remaining 
at Constantinople, many had risen to eminent positions as interpreters, 
physicians, and even as Hospodars, with the title of Prince, in the Molda- 
vian and Wallachian provinces. The distinguished and patriotic families 
of the Mavrocordatos and Ypselantes. belong to these classes. Others 
had become wealthy merchants and bankers, at Constantinople, Smyrna, 
and in the principal cities of Western Europe. The Ealles, the Zosiraades, 
so well known for their liberal patronage of letters, splendidly illustrate 
the commercial genius and generous patriotism of the reviving race. In 
Greece itself, a growing zeal for education, never wholly lost sight of 
even in their deepest misery, showed itself in the establishment of schools 
and colleges, and the increased circulation of books. A society was formed, 
called the Hetseria, which extended all over Greece, and wherever 
Greeks were to be found, uniting them in a secret system of concerted 
action for the emancipation of the country. The lyric songs of Rhegas, 
especially his animated and Tyrtaaus-like rallying-cry to fight for liberty, 
thrilled the heart of the nation ; and his tragical death, when he was de- 
livered up to the Turks by the Austrians, seemed to seal the sanctity of 
their cause by the baptism of blood. Later still, the illustrious Coraes, 
a scholar and patriot second to none in this age, — who in the year 1833 
closed at Paris a long life of virtuous and distinguished labors, — by his 
elegant and animated appeals to all that was august and glorious in their 
past history, and to every patriotic and kindling sentiment native to the 
Hellenic heart, nerved his countrymen to dare every extremity of fortune 
in the struggle to regain their long-lost independence. The heart of the 
nation was ready for the great encounter ; it had gone through the stern 
discipline of adversity, until adversity had exhausted its lessons of patient 
endurance. The moment for striking the long-meditated blow had come ; 
and the people, led on by their chieftains, and inspired by the approba- 
tion, and in some instances by the active participation, of their spiritual 
guides, rose in arms, in the sacred cause of nationality and liberty. 



A. D. 1768.] 



INSURRECTION OF 1769. 



607 




Castle of Patrse. 

CHAPTER LIII. 



THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 



kingdo:m of hellas. 



^ 1. Movements previous to the War of the Revolution. Insurrection of 1769. Orloff and the 
Russian Fleet. NavalExpeditionof Lampros, in 1787. All Pacha. Androutsos. § 2. Char- 
acteristics of tlie War of the Revolution, as slvetched by Mr. Tricnupes. § 3. Opening of 
the Wai". Prince Ypselantes. Germanos, Arctdjisliop of Patrnj. Si.'eres at Constantinople. 
Defeat at Dragasehan. ^ 4. Death of Diakos at Therraopylfe. § 5. Capture of 'I'ripolis (Tri- 
politza). Local Governments. First National Assembly at Epidauros. First Constitution. 
^ 6. JIassacre of Scio. ^ 7. Second National Assembly at Astros. Marcos Botzares. 
§ 8. Efforts in Favor of the Greeks. § 9. Intervention of Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt. 
Loan. § 10. Philhellenes. Gordon. Fabvier, Meyer, Hastings, General Church, Miller, 
Howe, Finlay, Lord Byron. § 11. Siege and Capture of Mesoloiigi. § 12. Movements sub- 
sequent to the Fall of Jlesolongi. Siege of Athens. Gouras takes Possession of the Citadel. 
Death of Gouras Attempts to relieve the Garrison. § 13. National Assembly at Troe- 
zene. Election of Capo D'Istrias to the Presidency of Greece. Karai-;kakes. §14. Bad 
Faith of the Greeks. Death of Karaiskakes. His Character. § 15. Battle in the Plain 
of Athens. 4 16. Interference of the European Cabinets. § 17. Obstinacy of the Porte. 
Battle of Navarino. War between Russia and Turkey. Cessation of Hostilities. § 18. At- 
tempts to settle the Affairs of Greece. Assassination of Capo D'Istrias. Selection of 
Otho of Bavaria as King. His Arrival. Organization of Greece. His Marriage. 
4 19. Constitution of 1843. § 20. State of Education. § 21. Language. § 22. Litera- 
ture. § 23. Popular Poetry and Klephtic Ballads. 

§ 1. In the reign of Catherine TI., in the year 1768, a war broke out 
oetween Turkey and Russia. The crafty Empress endeavored, and with 
instant success, to rouse the Greek nation to throw off the yoke, inspiring 
them with the hope of recovering their ancient liberty. Two years pre- 



608 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIIL 

viously, a Greek, who had been in the Russian army, was despatched into 
Peloponnesus to prepare the insurrection, and in 1769 a Russian fleet, 
under the command of Orloff, came to the Peloponnesus. The population 
flew to arms. The Turkish government poured a host of Albanians into 
the Peloponnesus, and suppressed the revolt with immense slaughter. Or- 
loff, witnessing the ill success of the attempt, forgot his promises, and sailed 
away, leaving the Greeks to their fate. An Armatole chieftain, named 
Androutsos, distinguished himself by feats of eminent bravery in this 
affair ; and a body of four hundred Laconians showed themselves no un 
Avorthy descendants of the heroes of Thermopylaj. At the conclusion ol 
the peace between Russia and the Porte, the provinces which bad re- 
ceived the Russians, or were suspected of having co-operated with them, 
were heavily punished. The patriarch Meletios was tortured, and then 
banished. Large fines were inflicted on the wealthier classes. The city 
of Moschopolis was plundered and destroyed. Three thousand of the in- 
habitants of Tricca were killed. Many Larissaeans were slain, and their 
only church was demolished ; priests and magistrates were beheaded in 
Lemnos, and the Christians of Smyrna were indiscriminately massacred : 
as they came out of the church. The enormities practised by the Alba- 
nians in Peloponnesus were indescribable ; and the question was debated 
in the Divan, whether it would not be advisable to seize this opportunity of 
extirpating the entire Hellenic race. But by the influence of Hassan Pacha 
milder counsels prevailed, and he was intrusted with the pacification of the 
Peloponnesus. This he accomplished by calling to his aid the mountain 
Klephts, by whom the Albanians were speedily I'outed, and driven from 
the Peloponnesus. The family of Colocotrones, one of whom, Theodore, 
played so conspicuous a part in the war of independence, first appear as 
leaders at this crisis. In 1787, war was renewed between Russia and 
Turkey, and new commotions again agitated Greece. Lampros, a Leba- 
deian, who had taken part in the former insurrection, supported by many 
wealthy merchants of Smyrna and Constantinople, led a naval expedition 
against the Turks, with considerable effect ; and about the same time the 
Souliotes of Epeirus, who for a century had maintained their independence 
among the mountains, commenced their heroic struggle with the cruel and 
crafty AJi Pacha ; they were joined by many Thessalian warriors, of 
whom the most distinguished was Androutsos, who since the insurrection 
of 1769 had led a wandering life, constantly pursued by the Turks, and 
with difiiculty escaping the dangers by which he was encompassed. A 
treaty of peace was again concluded betv/een Russia and Turkey in 1792. 
Androutsos attempted to escape into Russia through Venice, but he was 
seized and surrendered by the Venetians to the Turks, sent to Constanti- 
nople, and there put to death. The Souliotes continued the war until 
1803, when they were obliged to come to terms with the Pacha ; but, with 
the cruelty and perfidy natural to his character, he violated his plighted 



A.. D 1821.] THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 609 

faith. Many of these brave men fell a sacrifice to his falsehood, others 
escaped to Parga and the Ionian Islands, and, as a Greek historian says, 
"afterwards avenged the treachery of the Turks in'a thousand battles." 

§ 2. It is well remarked by Mr. Tricoupes, in his excellent History, that 
"the Greek revolution is distinguished from other revolutions by some 
peculiar and very important characteristics. This revolution attempted 
neither to put a check to absolutism nor despotism ; neither to change the 
local government, nor to break the bonds of union with the mother country. 
It aimed at a mightier and more glorious object than all these : to expel 
from Greece, by force of arms, an alien race of another faith, which had 
made her captive by arms, ages before, and to the last continued to regard 
her as their captive, and subject to their sword." 

" This war broke out between two nations, living indeed in Europe, 
but ignorant of the military art and the political science by which all the 
rest of Europe was and is distinguished ; and for this reason it may be 
regarded as a political and military anomaly in the midst of the political 
and military sciences of the present day, often reminding us, by many of 
its events and catastrophes, of the heroic times of ancient Hellas." 

" Greece," continues he, " declared and proclaimed before God and all 
mankind, at the beginning of her contest, that she aimed to break the for- 
eign yoke and to recover her nationality and her independence." 

The disproportion between the resources of the contending parties is 
another circumstance worthy of consideration. The party which fought 
to throw off the yoke, for years without support from other quarters, he 
estimates at one twentieth of the enemy, and their resources were trifling 
in comparison, because they were, as the resources of private individuals, 
contrasted with those of an ancient and powerful despotism. " The happy 
and unlocked for result," adds the patriotic and eloquent historian, " is suf- 
ficient to breathe courage into suffering and outraged nations, when, poor 
and powerless, they engage, with firm resolve, in the sacred struggle for 
faith and fatherland, for freedom and for justice, for national honor and 
happiness, against spiritual oppression and the devastation of their country, 
slavery and wrong, national annihilation and social wretchedness." 

The passions out of which the struggle grew determined its character. 
On the one side, the habit of tyranny, rapine, and oppression, and the 
contempt of barbarian masters for those whom they had so long op- 
pressed ; on the other, a sleepless sense of wrong and desire of revenge, 
mingling with and inflaming the love of country, inspired by coasciousness 
of superior intellect, and the illustrious memories of the past. Religious 
hatred — the fiercest perhaps of all human passions — gave intensity to 
resolve, and steeled the hearts of the contending parties to sympathy and 
pity. Hatred of race was another irritating element which envenomed 
the strife ; but, after all, it was a desperate struggle of barbarism, mis- 
placed in this century, against reviving civilization and the Christian 
77 



610 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIII. 

faitli. And it was this circumstance which finally gathered around the 
Grecian cause the hearty sympathies, the fervent prayers, the effective 
co-operation, of Christian nations everywhere. For years after the com- 
mencement of the struggle, the cabinets of Europe looked coldly on ; 
more than once the cry for help was answered by the disheartening re- 
sponse, " Let the Greek rebels return to their allegiance to their lawful 
sovereign," — as if at any moment of the four centuries of their enslave- 
ment ■ there was a single element of legal sovereignty in the oppressive 
rule of the Turks, — a single moment when the Christian victims had not 
a right to use every means within their reach to reclaim the freedom 
theirs by inheritance, and ravished from them by overpowering wrong. 
And so the great powers of Europe were forced, by the irresistible course 
of events, to acknowledge, when the contest was drawing nigh to its con- 
clusion, " for the first time," as the Greek historian truly remarks, " the 
discordant politics of Europe harmonized, and listened to the salutary pre- 
cepts of morality, and the sacred voice of suffering humanity." 

§ 3. The insurrection was opened by Prince Alexander Ypselantes, se- 
lected as leader by the Het^ria, at the head of the Greeks of Moldavia, 
who issued a proclamation in March, 1821, that all the Greeks on that day 
had thrown off the Turkish yoke ; and within a few weeks the provinces 
of the Peloponnesus, and the other parts of Greece, had risen in arms. 
Among the most gallant leaders of the opening scenes of the war was Ger- 
manos. Archbishop of Patrse. At Constantinople a suspicion had already 
existed that a conspiracy was forming among the Greek inhabitants of the 
city, and when the information arrived of the movements in Greece, the 
most rigorous measures were taken against the Greeks ; their schools were 
suppressed, their arms were seized, and the annihilation of the Hellenic race 
was again proposed in the Divan ; women and children were thrown into 
the sea, and Prince Mourouzes, chief Dragoman, was beheaded in the Se- 
raglio. A proclamation called on all Moslems to arm against the rebels, and 
the wildest and most ferocious fanaticism prevailed in the capital. In the 
streets where the Greeks resided, bodies of the dead and dying were 
everywhere to be seen. Ten thousand persons disappeared in the first 
few days ; and before three months had passed, it is supposed that more 
than thirty thousand Greeks were butchered in different cities of the em- 
pire. The Beys of Greece struggled in vain to smother the insurrection. 
The resolution to strike for liberty was universal and unchangeable, and 
the massacres were renewed at the capital. Gregorios, the Patriarch of 
Constantinople, then eighty years of age, with three bishops and eight 
priests, was seized by the order of the Grand Vizier, as they were leav- 
ing mass, and all were hung in their robes before the principal gate of the 
church. The lifeless body of the patriarch, two days after the murder, 
was cut down, dragged through the streets, and thrown into the sea. It 
was taken up by Greek sailors, carried to Odessa, and there honored with 



A. D. IS2IJ CAPTURE OF TEIPOLIS. 611 

a magnificent funeral. In the army of Prince Ypselantes were many ci 
the noblest young men, — the very flower of the Grecian youth. Fiv(^ 
hundred students rallied at the call of their country, and enrolling them- 
selves as the Sacred Band, — with uniform of black, and the Spartan mot- 
to on their standard, *H rav r) eVt rdv, "Either this or on this," — placed 
themselves under the command of the Prince. Four hundred of this gal- 
lant troop perished in the battle of Dragaschan, on the 19th of June, and 
the rest dispersed. Such was the ill-omened beginning of the war. 

§ 4. Among the first who fell in Greece in the struggle for independence 
was a Klephtic leader named Diakos, who at the head of a small band 
met the army of Omer Vriones, near the pass of Thermopylae. The 
Turkish force was so overwhelming, that most of his followers fled to 
the mountains, leaving him with only eighteen Palicars, as the ballad 
relates, — or at all events a very small number, as we know from histori- 
cal sources. This little band, as devoted and as worthy of immortal fame 
as the three hundred Spartans, held their ground for three hours, and, 
after killing many times their number of Turks, were themselves either 
killed or taken. Diakos was among the latter. According to Tricou- 
pes,* after the battle they carried Diakos and his companions to Zeitoun. 
In the course of the night he was brought into the presence of Halil Bey 
and other Turkish ofiicers, and questioned with regard to the insurrection. 
Diakos told them fearlessly that all Greece was resolved to be free or 
perish in the attempt. Mehemet Pacha, admiring the boldness of the 
hero, promised him his life if he would enter his service. " I will not 
serve you," answered Diakos, " and if I did, it would not help you." " I 
will kill you," answered the Pacha, " unless you join me." " Greece," he 
replied, " has many a Diakos beside me." On the following day, it was de- 
termined to impale him. As he was proceeding to the place of execution, 
castmg a look around him upon the face of nature, all smiling with the 
beauties of Spring, he repeated the following distich from an old bal- 
lad:— 

"Behold the time that Charon chose to take me from the living; 
The boughs are blooming now with flowers, the earth puts forth its herbage." 

Then continuing his way, he bore with unshaken soul for three hours the 
tortures of the agonizing death they inflicted on him. 

§ 5. In the latter part of the year, several marked successes attended 
the arms of the insurgents in Peloponnesus who rallied ^ound the popu- 
lar chiefs Petros Mavromichales and Theodore Colocotrones. Monemba- 
sia surrendered in July to Alexander Cantacuzenos ; Pylos (Navarino) 
was taken by a land force commanded by Gregorios, Bishop of M<Uhone 
(Modon), with the co-operation of the Spezziotes by sea. But the most 
remarkable event was the siege and capture of Tripolis (Tripolitza), the 

* 'loTopia Trji 'EWrjviKijs ''EnavacTTdaeas, K€(f). iS. 



612 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chip. LIU 

Turkish capital of the province, and the ordinary residence of- the Pachas 
of the Morea. This city lies on the central table-land of Arcadia, sur- 
rounded by the summits of Maenalion, Parthenion, and Arteraision. It 
was surrounded by a wall, and strongly fortified, and at the time of the 
siege contained about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The besiegers 
were commanded by Colocotrones, Anagnostaras, Ypselantes, Tatratos, 
and Petros Mavromichales. The siege was continued until the 5th of 
October, when the city was taken by assault, and the captors, inflamed by 
the memory of long-continued wrongs, and eager for plunder, enacted a 
scene of horror only surpassed by the cruelties of the Turks at Scio. 
" Their insatiable cruelty," says Gordon, " knew no bounds, and seemed 
to inspire them with a superhuman energy for evil, which set lassitude at 

defiance During the sack of the city, the air was close, dull, and 

oppressively hot, and the whole terrible picture afforded a lively image of 
Tartarus." 

With all the difficulties of their position, it is surprising how readily 
the old instinct of legality and political order revived among the Greeks, 
when the responsibility of conducting a national conflict fairly began to be 
felt, Mavrocordatos formed a local government in the western part of 
Greece ; in the eastern part, a local council, called the Areopagus, as- 
sumed the control, under the presidency of Theodore Negres ; a Pelopon- 
nesian Gerousia, or senate of twenty members, assembled at Argos, under 
the presidency of Prince Demetrius Ypselantes, and these three govern- 
ments, under the influence of Mavrocordatos, undertook to form a consti- 
tution and a central government for confederated Greece. The first na- 
tional assembly of Hellas, consisting of sixty-seven deputies, met in Jan- 
uary, 1822, at Epidaurus, and proceeded at once to frame a provisional 
constitution. Tliey proclaimed the national independence in the following 
terms : — 

" In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. The Greek nation, 
under the frightful tyranny of the Ottomans, unable to bear the unexam- 
pled weight of the yoke of tyranny, and having shaken it off with great 
sacrifices, proclaims this day, through its lawful representatives, in a 
national congress assembled, before God and men, its political existence 
and independence." 

The vigor and eloquence of the proclamation are worthy of the cause. 
Its authors state clearly and briefly the causes of the war, declaring that, 
'^ far from being the effect of a seditious and Jacobinical movement, or 
the pretext of an ambitious faction, it is a national war, undertaken for 
the sole purpose of reconquering our rights, and securing our exist- 
ence and honor A thousand ages of prescription would not bar 

the sacred rights, whose creation was the work of Nature herself They 
were torn from us by violence ; and violence more righteously diivicted 
may one day win them back Grecians, but a little while since ye 



A. D. 1822.] MASSACRE OF SCIO. 613 

said, ' No more slavery ! ' and the power of the tyrant has vanished. But 
it is concord alone which can consolidate your hberty and independence. 
The assembly offers up its prayers, that the mighty arm of the Most High 
may raise the nation towards the sanctuary of His Eternal Wisdom." 

The constitution, while making the Orthodox Eastern Church the ec- 
clesiastical establishment of the nation, enacted the toleration of all other 
forms of worship. It lodged the government in a Senate and Executive 
body, — the Senate to consist of thirty-three members, and the Executive 
Council of five ; it provided annual elections ; eight secretaries were ap- 
pointed, namely, of State, Interior, Public Economy, Justice, War, Navy, 
Religion, and Police. The judicial branch consisted of eleven members, 
chosen by the government, but holding office by an independent tenure ; 
civil and criminal justice to be administered according to the legislation of 
the Greek Emperors ; and the French Commercial Code was adopted for 
the regulation of mercantile affairs. Torture and confiscation were abol- 
ished, and freedom of the press established. The great defect of the con- 
stitution was the limited power of the Executive, especially in the critical 
circumstances of the country ; a defect severely felt in the conduct of the 
war. Alexander Mavrocordatos was chosen President of the Executive 
body ; Athanasius Kanakares, Vice-President ; and Ypselantes was offered 
the presidency of the Senate, but he declined, and Petros Mavromichales 
was put in his place. The departments were organized by the appointment 
of secretaries or commissions ; the first Seci*etary of State was Theodore 
Negres. Mavrocordatos and his colleagues proceeded with great energy 
and ability to organize and arrange the operations of the government, and 
to introduce some degree of order into the military affairs. 

§ 6. The most striking and terrible event of the year 1822 was the 
massacre of Scio. The inhabitants of this island had risen to a high de- 
gree of wealth and refinement. The population, before the Revolution, 
was estimated at more than one hundred thousand. They took httle or 
no part in the war until March, 1822, when an insurrection broke out, and 
the Turkish garrison was shut up in the citadel. The Capitan Pacha, 
or Turkish admiral, who was on his way to the Peloponnesus with a large 
fleet, changed his plan, and suddenly landed fifteen thousand men upon 
the island, resolved to strike terror into the people by an example of 
frightful severity. A massacre of the defenceless inhabitants at once 
commenced, such as the annals of warfare seldom record. Men, women, 
and children were tortured, and then put to death. Some fled to the 
mountains, and hid themselves in caverns ; others succeeded in getting on 
board the foreign ships lying in the harbor ; others made their escape to 
the neighboring islands ; more than forty thousand were slain in the 
course of a month ; thousands of the most refined and cultivated were car- 
ried off, and sold into slavery in the bazaars of Smyrna and Constantino- 
ple. Many were bought by Turks for the pleasure of torturing and put- 



614 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIII 

ting them to death; and many — as eyewitnesses to these scenes have re- 
lated — were redeemed by Europeans residing in Smyrna, who sacrificed 
tlieir wealtli in this work of Christian charity. From one hundred and 
twenty thousand the population was reduced to sixteen thousand souls, in 
one year ; a terrible catastrophe, an unheard of series of atrocities, for 
which our own age is responsible. The news of these events filled all 
Greece with sorrow and indignation. The Hydriotes, Spezziotes, and Ipsa- 
riotes sailed with a large fleet under the command of the illustrious naval 
hero, Andreas jNliaoules, and on the 19th of May encountered the Turk- 
ish armament between Scio and the coast of Asia Minor, and a battle en- 
sued. But it was not until June that deserved vengeance overtook the 
bloody Kara Ali, — the Capitan Pacha, — at the hands of another Greek 
hero. Caiiares, who with his countrymen had been watching at Ipsara an 
opportunity of striking a fatal blow at the hostile fleet. By a bold move- 
ment, he conducted some fire-ships within the Turkish lines, and, attaching 
one of them to the prow of the flag-ship, which was lying at anchor in the 
centre of the fleet, instantly set it on fire. Canares and his gallant crew 
escaped in a boat ; the ship was burned ; two thousand men perished. 
The Capitan Pacha, severely injured by the flames, leaped into a boat, 
but had scarcely seated himself when one of the masts fell, crushing hira 
and capsizing the boat ; and he was borne ashore by swimmers, bruised 
and burnt, and in a dying condition, and expired in the midst of the most 
terrible sufferings, on the very scene of his unparalleled cruelties. 

§ 7. The disheartening answer received from the Congress at Verona, 
in December, 1822, pronouncing the enterprise inconsiderate and cul- 
pable, and requiring the Greeks to submit to their lawful sovereign, the 
Sultan, — the civil dissensions between Colocotrones and the central gov- 
ernment, — led to tlie calling of a second national convention at Astros, 
in March, 1823, which introduced some amendments into the constitution, 
and elected Petros Mavromichales, President. They made various changes 
in the ministry, and resolved to oi-ganize a land force of fifty thousand 
troops, and a fleet of one hundred men-of-war. The events of the year 
were confused and bloody ; but one act of heroism shines conspicuous 
above all others, — the midnight attack of Marcos Botzares and his gallant 
band of Souliotes upon the Turkish camp at Carpenesion. The immediate 
object — the capture of the Bey in his tent — was not accomplished, and 
Botzares fell in the battle. Eight hundred Turks were slain, with a loss of 
only fifty of the Greeks. " The commander," it is well said by one of his 
countrymen, "did not cease, after his death, to serve his country ; for, if 
we except the achievement of our naval heroes, and the last siege of 
Mesolongi, no other event excited such admiration for Grecian valor as 
the death of Marcos Botzares." This heroic achievement has been im- 
mortalized in American literature by the splendid lyrical poem of Hal- 
leek, — 



A. D. 1824.] EFFORTS IN FAVOR OF THE GREEKS. 615 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die." 

These transactions certainly show that the Greeks had fallen in no respect 
below the martial spirit of their ancestors. 

§ 8. The sympathy growing up among the people everywhere was 
some compensation to the Greeks for the coldness and indifference of the 
Holy Alliance. In 1823, Louriottes, a confidential friend of Mavrocordatos, 
proceeded to London to negotiate a loan, which the executive was author- 
ized to contract, on the security of the national lands. His arrival in the 
British capital, and the details he communicated on the state of Greece, 
excited the greatest interest. Under the auspices of Mr. Baring, and with 
the approbation of lilx-M-al [toliticiaus, like Lord John Russell, Lord Mil- 
ton, anc} others, piililic meetings were called, and circulars addressed to 
the priiK-i!)!il ('iti(r'.ri in the kincrdom, soliciting subscriptions; and donations 
poured in from every q lartcr. Comniittees were appointed for the man- 
agement oi' the funds, and to corresj)ond with Philhellenic committees in 
other countries- An agent, Mr. Blaquiere, was sent to Greece to con- 
fer with the government. Li Germany and Switzerland similar move- 
ments took place, and large supplies of money, arms, and soldiers were 
furnished by their activity. To add to the sympathy now growing 
stronger and stronger daily, the unhappy refugees were expelled from 
the countries embraced in the Holy Alliance. A large number were 
driven from Russia ; many of them died of cold and hunger on the journey; 
the wretched survivors were refused admission to Austria, France, and 
the Sardinian States. At length, with great difficulty, the committees of 
Geneva and Zurich obtained permission for them to traverse France by 
small detachments, and sent them from Marseilles to Greece at their own 
expense. From the United States contributions were not wanting. In 
1824, about $ 80,000 were sent, which had been collected by the local 
committees. Some attempts were made by the English and Russians to 
bring about the pacification of Greece. The plan proposed by the Rus- 
sian agent, craftily arranged to bring the revolted provinces under the 
conti-ol of the Czar, while nominally replacing them as tributaries to the 
Porte, was rejected by tlie Sultan ; and as he had been assured by the 
British minister that the great poM'ers were determined to leave the 
Greeks to their fate, the rejection of any interference could not well be 
made the ground of complaint. 

§ 9. The ill success that had, however, attended three campaigns, con- 
vinced the Turks that they would be unable to reduce the Greeks without 
assistance ; and Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, who had made 
himself almost an independent sovereign, received flattering proposals 
from the Sultan, with the offer of the Morea as a Pachalic to his step-son 
Ibrahim, on condition of suppressing the revolt. But, notwithstanding 
the formidable arrangements made for the invasion of the Morea by the 



616 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChAP. LUI 

Egyptian fleets and armies, the Greek government was greatly encour- 
aged by the success of their agents in contracting a loan of a large 
amount, on the security of the national property ; and, although procured 
on very disadvantageous terms, — a debt of £ 800,000 being incurred for 
an available sum of only £ 280,000, a little more than one fourth of the 
amount, — the money was a very important relief in the pressure of their 
affairs. The Egyptian armament did not reach the Peloponnesus until 
1825. This invasion, and the ravages carried over the Peloponnesus by 
the Egyptian armies, disciplined and led by European officers, and ap- 
parently the instruments by which the subjugation of Greece must be 
accomplished, were, under the guiding hand of Providence, the means of 
bringing this people out of their great perUs, in the darkest hour of dis- 
tress and danger. 

§ 10. The accession of numerous Philhellenes to the cause was not, in 
all respects, beneficial. They came with different views, objects, and ex- 
pectations. Some of them were ardent, enthusiastic men, whose sympa- 
thy for the country rested more on her ancient greatness than her present 
sufferings. But there were many honorable and distinguished men, who, 
well understanding the nature of the struggle, and not led away by liter- 
ary enthusiasm, or by the memories of the past, consecrated their best 
efforts, their lives and their fortunes, to the restoration of Greece. There 
was Colonel Gordon, a man of calm intrepidity and the coolest head ; 
there was Fabvier, the gallant Frenchman, who refused all pecuniary 
compensation, and spent his property in the service ; there was Meyer, 
the German, who stood to his post bravely, and perished beneath the ruins 
of Mesolongi ; Hastings, whose modest worth and gallant spirit have left 
a name never to be forgotten in the annals of those times ; General 
Church, who, though he arrived in Greece only to share in the last year 
of the struggle, showed the virtues of chivalry and the humanity of a 
Christian gentleman, and who still lives, an object of universal respect for 
his probity, his defence of liberal principles, his unbending virtue in pub- 
lic and private life. He is a member of the Senate, and though not an ora- 
tor, is a man of sagacity and of widely extended influence. There were 
our countrymen. Miller and Howe, both brave men, and the latter known 
throughout the world for his genius and philanthropy, having by his later 
achievements in peace eclipsed the fame he won on the theatre of his 
early adventures. There was Finlay, an accomplished Scotch gentleman, 
who, having lent his aid to the achievement of independence, is now giving 
studious years to the history of the country of his adoption, and whose 
works rank with the best productions of historical research in this age so 
fruitful of distinguished authorship in that department of letters. 

But the greatest sensation was created by the advent of Lord Byron, 
and his early death at Mesolongi gives a profound interest to this chap- 
ter of Hellenic history, which a much longer period of active service 



A. D. 1823.] LORD BYKON. 617 

might have failed to inspire. The most indulgent judge must pass severe 
censure on many parts of Lord Byron's life. But his better nature began 
to waken from the delusions of the passions ; and his good angel gave him 
an opportunity of crowning his life — all too short for himself and for the 
world — with a radiant and glorious close. He had formerly travelled 
through Greece, and celebrated its past achievements, as well as painted 
its present degradation, in the most transcendent poetry of modern times. 
He was misled by no enthusiasm of lettered and romantic youth ; he knew 
thoroughly the condition of the Greeks, and no man had judged their 
faults of character with more severity. Blended with his poetical genius, 
there was in Lord Byron a quality of practical good sense, which, in other 
circumstances, would have made him eminent in the business of public or 
private life. With this good sense he scrutinized the condition of Greece, 
and reasoned out the probability of his power of rendering her a worthy 
service in that hour of her peril. He came to the conclusion calmly, 
without passion, without enthusiasm, without delusion, that here was a 
field in which he could achieve a good beyond the value of any poetical 
success ; and having come to this conclusion, he forthwith consecrated his 
thoughts, his time, his fortune, his personal exertions, to the cause of 
Greece. He set sail from Leghorn on the 24th of July, 1823, and ten 
days after arrived in Cephalonia, and thence despatched messengers to 
make particular inquiries into the state of affairs in Greece. In the mean 
time he made an excursion to Ithaca, and examined with interest the an- 
tiquities of that rocky capital of Ulysses' kingdom. Finding here a num- 
ber of families who had escaped from the massacre of Scio, from Pat- 
mos, and other places, he furnished generously the money for their relief. 
One of his messengers brought him a letter from Marco Botzares, writ- 
ten only a few hours before his heroic death. In this letter he says, 
** I shall have something to do to-night against a corps of six or seven 
thousand Albanians, encamped close to this place. The day after to- 
morrow I will set out, with a few chosen companions, to meet your ex- 
cellency. Do not delay. I thank you for the good opinion you have 
of my fellow-citizens, which God grant you will not find ill-founded ; 
and I thank you still more for the care you have so kindly taken of 
them." * He did not embark for Mesolongi until the end of Decem- 
ber, having employed the intervening time in corresponding with the 
friends of Greece, the Greek government, and the heads of the different 
parties, by whose dissensions the condition of the country was much en- 
dangered. It is impossible not to admire the just and comprehensive 
views developed by Lord Byron during these months of preliminary 
arrangements for his great enterprise. The wisdom of his conduct in re- 

* This refers to his having taken into his pay a body of the Souliotes, who had been 
homeless since their defeat by All Pacha. 
78 



618 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIU 

fusing to be drawn into the schemes of any of the factions, and the sagacity 
with which he penetrated and baffled their intrigues to secure his adhe- 
sion, the earnestness of his exhortations to concord and union, can never 
be sufficiently praised. To the general government of Greece he writes : 
" We have heard some rumors of new dissensions, nay, of the existence 
of civil war. With all my heart I pray that these reports may be false 
or exaggerated, for I can imagine no calamity more serious than this." 
" You have fought gloriously ; act honorably towards your fellow-citizens 
and the world, and it will then no more be said, as has been repeated for 
two thousand years, that Philopoemen was the last of the Grecians. Let 
not calumny itself compare the patriot Greek, when resting from his la- 
bors, to the Turkish Pacha, whom his victories have exterminated." And 
to Mavrocordatos he says : " I am very uneasy at hearing that the dis- 
sensions of Greece still continue, and at a moment when she might tri- 
umph over everything. Greece is at present placed between three meas- 
ures: either to reconquer her liberty, to. become a dependence of the 
sovereigns of Europe, or to return to a Turkish province. Civil war is 
but a road which leads to the two latter." He arrived at Mesolongi on 
the 5th of January, 1824, having narrowly escaped being captured by the 
Turkish fleet. The whole population welcomed him on the shore ; the 
ships fired salutes as he passed ; and Mavrocordatos, at the head of the 
troops, and the civil authorities of the place, gave him a reception as hearty 
as it was full of joy, and escorted him in a body to the house which had 
been prepared for him. His conduct, m the midst of the difficulties by 
which he was at once surrounded, showed the same coolness, good sense, 
and generosity, where generosity could be serviceable, that had marked 
his course ever since he engaged in the enterprise. The suppression of 
discord, and the diminution of the inevitable horrors of war, by tempering 
it with sentiments of humanity, too often forgotten by the Greeks as 
well as by the Turks in the moment of victory, were the first objects he 
had at heart. He let no opportunity escape of inculcating and illustrating 
this spirit ; he employed his influence successfully, in inducing the gov- 
ernment to set some Turkish prisoners, who had been long languishing in 
dungeons, at liberty, and restoring them to their friends. Others he re- 
lieved by pecuniary aid, and others still he provided the means of sending 
to their homes. His ample income was employed without stint, and at 
the same time with excellent judgment, in the public service. It is 
an interesting incident in his literary life, that the last lines he wrote 
are these memorable ones, on the 22d of January, 1824, on completing 
his thirty-sixth year. The last stanza was ominous of his approaching 
fate : — 

" Seek out — less often sought than found — 
A soldier's grave, for thee the best; 
Then look around and choose thy ground, 
And take thy rest." 



A D. 1824.] DEATH OF LORD BYRON. G19 

He had been haunted from the beginning by a presentiment that he was 
destined to close his life in Greece. In taking leave of his friends in 
Italy, he more than once expressed this apprehension. The first indicar 
tion of his failing health was given by a violent convulsion, on the loth of 
February, while he was conversing with a few friends. This alai-ining 
incident created the most serious anticipations, and Lord Byron was 
urged to retire to some more healthy place, until his health should be re- 
stored. In reply to one of these friendly invitations he says : " I cannot 
quit Greece while there is a chance of my being of any (even supi)osed) 
utility ; there is a stake worth millions such as I aiTi, and, while I can 
stand at all, I must stand by the cause." In the following moiitli he took 
the fever, from an exposure to a violent rain, whicli in a few days ended 
his life. The details of that last illness and death till one of the saddest 
chapters in the history of Greece ; and the affliction which fell on the 
country, as the news rapidly spread from province to province, testified 
how deef)Iy his generous devotion to their cause had sunk into the hearts 
of the Greeks. In his last thoughts, indistinctly uttered in the broken 
words which were all the dissolving organs could convey, the names of his 
friends, his wife, his daughter, and of Greece, were confusedly mingled, — 
daughter and Greece were the very last words he spoke, — and then the 
silence and sleep of death settled on him who had electrified the world, 
and on whom, but now, the hopes of a nation centred. A storm of thun- 
der broke over the town at the moment of his departure, and the Greeks 
who thronged the street to. learn his condition cried out, as the awful 
crash fell from the sky, " The great man is gone." 

It was the festival of Easter, — usually celebrated with great joy by the 
Greeks. But the day of festivity and rejoicing was turned into sorrow 
and mourning. All amusements ceased ; the shops were shut ; prayers 
were offered in the churches. The funeral ceremony took place on the 
22d of April, in the church where lie the bodies of Marcos Botzares and 
the brave General Norman. Mr. Tricoupes, the friend of Mavrocordatos 
and of Byron, the able secretary, the vigorous historian, and now the 
worthy representative of his country in England, delivered a funeral ora- 
tion in the church on Easter Sunday. " Wliat an unlooked for event!" 
exclaimed the orator, '' what a deploi'able misfortune ! It is but a short 
time since the people of much-suffering Greece, all joy and exultation, 
welcomed to their bosoms this distinguished man ; and to-day, all woe and 
despair, they bedew his funeral couch with bitterest tears, and mourn 
without consolation. The sweetest salutation, Christ is arisen, became 
joyless on Easter day, upon the lips of the Christians of Greece : who, 
when they met one another in the morning of that day, before they had 
yet spoken the congratulation.'! of the festival, anxiously inquired. How is 
my lord ? Thousands of men, assembled to interchange the sacred salu- 
tation of love, in the broad plain outside the walls of our city, appeared 



620 HISTORY OF GIIEECE. [Chap. LIII. 

to have assembled only to beseech the Saviour of all for the health of the 
champion in behalf of the freedom of our nation." 

The orator goes on to speak, in the most feeling manner, of the services 
Lord Byron had rendered ; of the liberal employment of his wealth ; of his 
excellent judgment ; of his splendid genius. " All lettered Europe," says 
he, " has eulogized, and will eulogize, the poet of our age ; and all ages 
will celebrate him, because he was born for all Europe and for all ages." 

" In the agony of death, — yes, at the moment when the veil of eternity 
is I'ent to liim who stands on the borders of mortal and immortal life, — 
in that awful hour, the illustrious departed, when leaving all the world, 
bore only two names upon his lips, that of his much beloved daughter, and 
that of Ills much beloved Hellas. These names, deeply rooted in his heart, 
the moment of death itself could not obliterate. ' My daughter ! ' he said ; 
' Greece ! ' he said ; and his voice expired. What Grecian heart is not 
broken, when it recalls this scene ? 

" Tiiiue arm, dearly cherished daughter ! will receive him ; thy tears 
will console the tomb which holds his body, and the tears of the orphans 
of Greece shall be shed over the urn that holds his most precious heart, 
and upon the whole land of Hellas, because the whole land of Hellas 
shall be his sepulchre. As in the last moments of his life he had thee 
and Plellas in his heart and on his lips, it was just that after his death 
Hellas also should receive a part of his precious remains. Mesolongi 
presses in her arms the urn that holds his heart as a symbol of his love ; 
but all Greece, in mourning and inconsolable, renders his body back to 
thee with ecclesiastical, civil, and military honors, crowned with her grat- 
itude and bedewed with her tears. Learn, most noble maiden, that chief- 
tains bore it on their shoulders to the church ; that thousands of Grecian 
warriors lined the way through which the procession moved, with arms 
reversed, as if they would war against the very earth which snatched 
away their faithful friend ; they surround his bier, and swear never to 
forget the >acrifices your father made, and never to allow a barbarous and 
tyrannic foot to trample the spot where his heart remains. A thousand 
Christian voices are this moment raised, and the temple of the Most 
High resounds with funeral chants ; all is tilled with prayers that his re- 
vei'ed remains may be safely restored to his native land, and that his soul 
may rest whei'e rest the righteous tor ever." 

Mr. Tncoupes spoke the feehngs of the whole country. A deeper sense 

of loneliness and woe never fell upon that afflicted land than when her 

greatest benefactor died. 

" Such honors Ilion to her hero paid, 
And peaceful slept the mighty Hector s shade." 

§ 11. The successes of Ibrahim Pacha were checkered with reverses 
and defeats ; but wherever he went, he laid the country waste, and, 
Blaughteriug the men, sent the women and children to be sold as slaves in 



A. D 1826.] CAPTURE OF MESOLONGI. 021 

Egypt. On the 18tli of November, 1825, the fleet of Ibrahim arrived 
from the Peloponnesus at Mesolongi, and a few days after another division 
of his army joined the forces by way of Lepanto, and the city was imme- 
diately invested by an army of thirty thousand men. The most active 
measures for its reduction by a vigorous assault were taken. The be- 
siegers were often repulsed with heavy losses, and in February it was re- 
solved to reduce the place by a rigorous blockade. The gallant attempts 
of Miaules to break the blockade were fruitless. Ibrahim Pacha sent to 
the garrison a request that they would depute persons to treat with him 
who coLild speak Albanian, Turkish, and French ; but they replied, " We 
are illiterate:-, and do not understand so many languages ; Pachas we do 
not recognize, but we know how to handle the sword and gun." In three 
days eight thousand shot and shells were fired into the town, demolishing 
the houses, but killing few of the people. The outposts were taken one 
by one, but only after the most desperate and bloody resistance. At 
length the supplies from without were cut off, and the garrison reduced to 
the most miserable condition, feeding on rats, raw hides, and sea- weed. 
The earth was covered with the starving, sick, and wounded ; but they 
persisted in their refusal to surrender, and resolved, since the place could 
no longer be defended, to leave it with arms in their hands. A sortie was 
arranged for the night of April 22d, and would probably have been quite 
successful but for the treacheiy of a Bulgarian, who gave notice to Ibra- 
him Pacha, and thus enabled him, shortly before the appointed moment, 
to make preparations for the attack. The plan was that three thousand 
armed men should throw themselves suddenly upon the enemy's line, and 
open a way for the women and children. The women and boys armed 
themselves with swords and daggers. Many of the inhabitants, however, 
including the sick and wounded, resolved not to quit their native place, 
but to share its downfall and bury themselves in its ruins. The leave- 
taking of those who determined to make the desperate attempt, and of 
their friends and relations who remained behind, is described as heart- 
rending ; the wailing and lamentations not only filled the city, but reached 
the posts of the besieging army. According to the arrangement, the sol- 
diers of the garrison passed out by the eastern outlet, and awaited the sig- 
nal ; but growing impatient under the enemy's fire, they started up, and, 
shouting '' Death to the barbarians ! " passed the trenches, broke through 
the infantry, silenced the batteries, and killed the artillery -men at their 
guns. In the confusion of the hour, a part of the plan failed to be carried 
into effect. A panic broke out among the people, and instead of taking 
instant advantage of the enemy's confusion, they rushed back to the town. 
The Turks and Arabs, eager for slaughter and plunder, poured in from 
every side, and commenced the work of destruction and blood. The 
cries of the wounded and dying filled the night. The roll of mus- 
ketry, and the explosions of magazines, fired by the inhabitants, and 



622 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIII 

elaying multitudes of the besiegers, added to the horrors of the scene. 
A lame private soldier named Capsales had retired with his family into 
the principal magazine, which contained thirty barrels of gunpowder. 
He sat with a lighted torch, and when it was crowded by the frantic 
Moslem!^ the veteran applied the torch, and all were blown, mutilated 
corpses, into the air by the horrible explosion. The loss of the besiegers 
was increased by the struggle for the spoils between the Egyptians and 
the European Turks. When the assault commenced there were in Meso- 
longi nine thousand souls : five hundred were slain in the sortie, six hun- 
dred afterwards died by starvation in the mountains ; about eighteen hun- 
dred escaped, of whom two hundred were females. The spirit shown by 
these Grecian heroines is illustrated by one of the incidents of the escape. 
A young girl, tlying with a brother in delicate health, was pursued by a 
Turkish horseman. Carrying the brother, exhausted by fatigue, to a 
neighboring hillock, she seized his gun, received the fire of the Turk, 
which fortunately was without effect, and then coolly took aim and shot 
him dead. Among the slain were a number of European Philhellenes, 
and two brothers of Tricoupes, the orator and historian. Three thousand 
were sabred in the streets, and nearly the same number of womei. ^.nd 
children were sold into slavery. Greece was again clothed in mourning. 
Not only was the downfall of Mesolongi disastrous in a military and po- 
litical view ; it gave new occasion for civil strifes, which the government 
could not repress ; and it placed in the hands of the enemy the spot which 
they had sworn at the death of Byron he should never pollute with his 
footsteps. But the endurance and heroism of the defenders, the gallantry 
of those who cut through the besieging lines, and of those who stayed to 
perish in the ruins, crowned the name of Mesolongi with unfading glory. 

§ 12. After the siege of Mesolongi, Ibrahim returned into the Pelo- 
ponnesus only to renew his ravages ; but in attempting to reduce the 
Manotes, he suffered several severe repulses. Athens, almost the only 
place in Eastern Greece that still held out, was closely besieged. An 
attempt of Colonel Fabvier on Euboea had failed. The third national 
assembly of the Greeks, held in April at Epidauros, dismayed at the 
fall of Mesolongi, appointed two commissions, one of twelve members, 
for the regulation of the war, the other of thirteen, for the civil govern- 
ment and the administration of the revenue. The assembly then ad- 
journed until September, and the committee repaired to Naupha to as- 
sume their functions. The war was carried on in Eastern Greece, West- 
ern Greece, Peloponnesus, and the Islands ; the state of affairs now 
seemed hopeless in all these great divisions of the theatre of action. In 
the month of July, the Turkish commander, Kiutahi or Reschid Pacha, 
commenced his operations against Athens, then commanded by Gouras, 
formerly a lieutenant of Odysseus, who, having surrendered himself 
to the troops sent against him in 1824, was held in close confinement 



A. D. 1826.] SIEGE OF ATHENS. 623 

as a prisoner in the Acropolis at Athens. A few days after, his mutilat- 
ed body was found at the foot of the Acropolis, under a tower in which he 
was imprisoned. It was given out that he fell, and was accidentally 
killed in attempting to escape. But various circumstances afterwai'ds, 
concurring with expressions of remorse uttered by Gouras, led to the 
opinion that that chieftain had yielded to the importunities of enemies of 
Odysseus, and consented that he should secretly be put to death. 

Grouras was instructed by the government to keep the Turks at a dis- 
tance from Athens ; but, disregarding their orders, he filled the magazines 
of the Acropolis with provisions, which he forced the inhabitants of Athens 
in the most arbitrary manner to supply, and prepared with his troops to 
stand a siege in that almost impregnable fortress. Many of the citizens 
went over to Salamis, as they did in the old Persian wars ; the rest stood 
by their hearths and altars in the city. The Turks soon got possessioa 
of the town, though the outposts were bravely defended by the citizens. 
The operations of the siege were interrupted by the appearance of Colonel 
Fabvier and Karaiskakes in the plain of Athens, with a considerable force. 
But a battle taking place, the Greeks were routed, and fled, and the bom- 
bardment of the Acropolis from the hill of the Museum, near the monu- 
ment of Philopappus, was resumed with great energy. The siege Avas 
carried on, not only by the incessant firing of the batteiues, but by a series 
of mines and countermines, in which many men perished. Gouras lost 
his life early in October. One night, as he was going the rounds, one of 
his attendants snapped a musket, and two shots being fired in the direction 
of the flash, one of them struck him on the head, and he died without a 
groan. 

Several attempts were made to relieve the garrison, but only one suc- 
ceeded. It was executed by Colonel Fabvier and a body of about six 
hundred picked men, who, on the night of December 13th, broke through 
the Turkish lines, and entered the Acropolis under a shower of grape 
from the Museum, with a loss of only six killed and fourteen wounded. 
A large supply of jx)wder was almost the only advantage secured to the 
garrison by this daring adventure. The siege was vigorously pressed, 
and the distress arising from the crowded state of the Acropolis increased. 
The constant discharge of cannon did great mischief to the splendid mon- 
uments of the Acropolis, despite the firman obtained from the Sultan by 
Sir Stratford Canning, that the Parthenon and the Ei*echtheion should be 
spared. A large part of the Erechtheion was battered down, and the 
family of Gouras, with the principal ladies of Athens, who had taken shel- 
ter there, perished beneath its ruins. 

§ 13. A ft-esh national asserabl}' assembled at Troezen in March, 
1827, and introduced some very imjjortant modifications into the constitu- 
tion, the most essential of which was the placing the executive power in 
the hands of a single magistrate, under the title of President of Greece, 



624 HISTOEY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIU 

extending the term of office to seven years, and enlarging his powers gen- 
erally. After a good deal of angry dispute, and with great reluctance on 
the part of raany members, the choice finally rested on John Capo D'ls- 
trias, a Corfiote, a man of great talent and sagacity, and of large experi- 
ence in affairs, having been long in the Russian service, and being at the 
moment a member of the cabinet of that country. As some time must 
elapse before he would arrive in Greece, the executive power was in- 
trusted to a commission of three. Tlie same assembly appointed Lord 
Cochrane to the chief command by sea, and placed General Clinrrh in the 
supreme command of the land forces. These two officers immediately 
entered upon their respective commands, and arrangements were at once 
made for an attack on the Turkish besiegers of the Acropolis. ' KaraYs- 
kakes also returned from a brilliant expedition in the North. Public at- 
tention was concentrated upon the operations for raising the siege of 
Athens, as if that was the last hope of the country, and troops poured in 
from every quarter, in answer to the calls of the government and the com- 
manders. 

§ 14. The Greeks, during the operations that followed, committed one 
of those acts of bad faith which have brought so much reproach upon 
them. An attack was made on the Turkish positions in Munychia. The 
Turks fled, and three hundred took refuge in the monastery of St. Spyri- 
don. Though surrounded by the Greeks and cut off from all communica- 
tion, and without the slightest chance of escape, they refused to surrender 
unless allowed to retain their arms. The monastery was cannonaded, 
and at last General Church proposed to allow them to pass out with their 
arms, contrary to the wishes of the native officers. The Greeks were dis- 
appointed and enraged, thinking that the garrison would in a few days be 
reduced to an unconditional surrender. Hostages had been given for the 
faithful performance of the agreement ; among the rest Karaiskakes him- 
self, and other distinguished chieftains of the Greeks, placed themselves at 
the disposal of the Turks. The troops left the monastery, having the hos- 
tages in their centre. But the Greeks, murmuring and tumultuous and 
little accustomed to military obedience, surrounded them ; a quarrel arose 
between a Turkish officer and a Greek soldier, which led to an instant 
attack. The Greek officers did their best, at the risk of their own lives, 
to save the Turks, and one was killed and several wounded. Karaiskakes, 
frantic at this shameful violation of the truce, struggled in vain against his 
countrymen ; then, turning to the Turks, cried out, " Kill me, as I have 
killed you." Two hundred were killed, and about seventy made their 
escape and reached the camp of Reschid Pacha. The result of such an 
act of treachery was most disastrous. It demoralized the Greek forces, 
and disheartened the European commanders. General Church, horror- 
struck, was on the point of resigning his command, and was only dis- 
suaded from this step by the entreaties of the Moreote officers. The next 



A. D. 1827.] BATTLE IN THE PLAIN OF ATHENS. 625 

disastrous incident was the death of Karaiskakes, in a skirmish on the 4th 
of May. A body of Greek soldiers made an irregular attack upon some 
of the Turkish outposts. The assailants were driven back. Karaiskakes 
was sick and in bed ; but, hearing the fire, he rose, sprang upon his horse, 
and galloped into the midst of the battle. While endeavoring to rally the 
fugitives he received the fire of a Turkish horseman, and was carried mor- 
tally wounded from the field. He was taken on board one of the ships, and 
there, conscious of his approaching death, passed the last hours of his exist- 
ence in an earnest conversation with Lord Cochrane and the other chiefs 
on the state of the country and the proper measures to be taken for her 
deliverance. When some words of consolation were addressed to him in 
praise of the brilliancy of his achievements, he answered, '' What I have 
done, I have done ; what has happened, has happened ; now for the fu- 
ture." And when he was drawing his last breath, he said to those around 
him, among whom were Lord Cochrane and General Church, " My coun- 
try laid upon me a heavy task ; I have fulfilled my duty by ten months 
of terrible battles ; nothing remained except my hfe ; this I owed to my 
country, this I surrender to my country. I am dying ; let my fellow-sol- 
diers finish my work ; let them save my Athens." These were the last 
words he spoke. His bravery, his patriotism, his heroic death, made the 
errors of his previous life forgotten, and he is justly regarded by his coun- 
trymien as one of the most illustrious of her heroes. Funeral honors were 
paid to his memory by the national assembly at Troezene, and an eloquent 
discourse pronounced by Mr. Tricoupes in the presence of the deputies 
and the Executive Council, and a large concourse of citizens. The stran- 
ger who visits Athens gazes with interest, as he enters the harbor of Pei- 
raeus, upon the ruins of the tomb of Themistocles, which looked out upon 
the waters of Salamis, the scene of his glory ; and as he passes up from 
Peiraius to Athens, along the foundations of the ancient walls which con- 
nected the port with the city, he beholds with equal interest, in a field at 
a distance from the road, the monument erected on the spot where the 
modern hero fell. 

§ 15. Two days afterwards the fate of the attempt to raise the siege of 
Athens was decided. On the 6th of May, one of the most sanguinary bat- 
tles which had occurred in the whole war was fought in the environs of 
the city. Lord Cochrane had said that he should dine on the Acropolis. 
Vain boast. The Turkish horsemen — always the most formidable ann 
of the service — dashed impetuously upon the Greeks, and cut them to 
pieces with dreadful slaughter. The panic-stricken survivors of the main 
body fled. A band of Souliotes maintained their grourid, and were nearly 
all slain. The rout was complete ; " and for two hours," says Dr. Howe, 
" the plain presented only a picture of detached fights between bands of 
ten, five, or three Greeks and dozens of Turks, who soon cut them to . 
pieces, though after desperate resistance." Lord Cochrane and General 
79 



626 HISTOKT OF GREECE. [Chap. LIIL 

Church, who were advancing with supphes and reinforcements, were 
obliged to retreat and take refuge on board the ships. The centre and 
left wing, amounting to seven thousand men, who had taken no part in the 
battle, immediately fled in the direction of the Isthmus ; the posts around 
Peiraeus were abandoned. The ground was strewn with fifteen hundred 
of the flower of the Grecian warriors ; nearly all the Europeans engaged 
in the battle perished ; many of the bravest leaders fell ; others were 
taken prisoners, of whom two hundred and forty were beheaded the next 
morning. Lord Cochrane immediately withdrew with his squadron to 
Hydra. General Church remained at Phaleron with two thousand men 
three weeks longer, when, finding his men disheartened and ready to de- 
sert, he dismantled the batteries and abandoned all the positions. Some 
attempts were subsequently made to relieve the garrison by an expedition 
in the enemy's rear, to cut off his supplies. The citadel was, however, 
surrendered on the 5th of June. 

The fall of Athens was felt as a tremendous blow over all Greece. It 
seemed to extinguish the last spark of hope that the war could be contin- 
ued. The poverty that covered the country was indescribable. But the 
sympathies of the world were aroused anew by the tales of starvation and 
woe which reached the ears of the humane everywhere. In the United 
States societies were formed to raise contributions, and seven ship-loads 
of provisions and clothing were despatched, which saved from death 
thousands of the wretched population, and infused new strength into the 
heart of tlie nation. 

§ 16. The cabinets of Europe also were no longer insensible to the 
duty of putting a stop to the present state of things. The tone of the Eng- 
lish government had been greatly altered by the influence of Canning's 
genius and fine humanity ; and the former sympathy with the Turks in 
their lawful efibrts to suppress the unjustifiable insurrection of their re- 
bellious rayas was felt to be false to the spirit of the times, and traitorous 
to the rights of man. Before the insurrection, the Greeks had sent a depu- 
tation to St. Petersburg, to offer the crown of Greece to one of the Grand 
Dukes, in the hope of securing the support of so powerful a state to their 
cause. The offer was declined. During the war they sent another dep- 
utation to Paris, proposing that one of the sons of Louis Philippe — then 
Duke of Orleans — should be placed on the throne; here, again, they 
met with disappointment. Later still, they threw themselves on the pro- 
tection of England, offering to confer the crown on Prince Leopold ; but 
the proposition was at first coldly received. The successes of Ibrahim 
Pacha, and the prospect of having a powerful Egyptian government, in- 
dependent of the Porte, established in Greece, had some effect in exciting 
the alarm of Europe, and the disturbance of commerce in the Levant 
became more and more serious. In 1826 Russia manifested a disposition 
to take the settlement of affairs into her own hands. Mr. Canning seized 



A. D. 1827.] BATTLE OF NAVARINO. 627 

the occasion of the mission of the Duke of Wellington to St. Petersburg, 
in that year, to communicate the readiness of the British cabinet to join 
in an arrangement for the pacification of Greece. The result of this 
communication was the signature of the protocol of the 4th of April. 
This was followed by a series of diplomatic discussions, leading to the 
treaty signed at London on the 6th of July, 1827, by the plenipotentia- 
ries gf Russia, France, and England, which provided that an immediate 
armistice should be established between Turkey and Greece, and pro- 
posed to place Greece on the footing of a tributary province, under the 
sovereignty of the Sultan, but with the right of electing her own gov- 
ernors, subject to the approval of the Porte. The feeble and wretched 
condition of Greece made it difficult for her to reject even these humil- 
iating terms ; but the Porte refused to allow any interference in its own 
affaii's, and even to receive a written communication from the ministers 
of the Western powers. 

§ 17. This obstinacy of the Porte, which was but too well justified by 
the previous assurances of the cabinets that they had no intention of in- 
terfering, induced England and France to augment their naval forces in 
the Mediterranean. Russia sent a squadron to join them. The British 
Admiral, Sir Edward Codrington, was instructed to prevent the landing of 
any forces in Greece from Egypt or Turkey. The Greeks had abstained 
from all military operations as soon as the treaty was known ; but as 
Ibrahim continued his ravages, and violated a temporary armistice he had 
agreed to with Codi-ington, they again took up arms. The combined 
Egyptian and Turkish fleets lay concentrated in the harbor of Navarino, 
when, on the 20th of October, the English, French, and Russian squad- 
rons entered the Bay, resolved, at all hazards, to put a stop to the enor- 
mities still perpetrated by Ibrahim, and to force him to comply with their 
proposals. He was required either to quit the Peloponnesus altogether, or 
at least to cease fi'om devastating the country. The Turks were drawn 
up in order of battle, and having fired upon a boat with a flag of truce, 
and killed several persons on board, a terrible battle instantly commenced, 
which lasted four hours. The Turco-Egyptian fleet consisted of seventy- 
nine ships of war, and other vessels, amounting in all to one hundred and 
twenty, carrying two thousand two hundred and forty cannon ; the fleet of 
the allies amounted to only twenty-six vessels, with thirteen hundred and 
twenty-four guns ; but, though the battle was obstinate and bloody, it result- 
ed in the utter defeat of the Turks and Egyptians. They refused to strike ; 
some of their ships were burned, others driven on shore, and nearly all dis- 
abled; only twenty or thirty corvettes and brigs remaining in a sailing 
condition. Six thousand men perished. So tremendous a catastrophe 
caused for a moment an involuntary cessation of hostilities. Europe and 
America resounded with triumph and exultation ; and the Greeks, filled 
with new hope, returned thanks to Heaven for so signal and unlooked for 



628 HISTOET OF GREECE. [Chap. LIII 

a deliverance. But when the news reached Constantinople, it found the 
Porte still intractable and violent. " My positive, absolute, definitive, un- 
changeable, eternal answer," said the minister to the interpreters of Eng- 
land, France, and Russia, " is that the Sublime Porte does not accept any 
proposition concerning the Greeks, and means to persist in its own will 
for ever and ever, even unto the day of the last judgment." In this obsti- 
nate course of conduct the Porte was sustained by Austria, under the 
inspiration of Metternich, to whom the alliance between Russia, France, 
and England,. and all the recent proceedings for the salvation of Greece, 
were in the highest degree distasteful. But it was impossible for the 
Porte long to hold out. In April, 1828, Russia declared war against her, 
and compelled the Sultan to turn his chief attention in this direction. 

The President elect. Capo D'Istrias, having been dismissed from the Rus- 
sian service, and having spent about ten months in St. Petersburg, Paris, 
and London, in order to come to a distinct understanding with the three 
protecting powers, and having effected a loan, then highly necessary to the 
new organization of Greece, arrived at Nauplia in January, 1828, and 
thence proceeded to -^gina, where the government had at that time es- 
tablished itself "While in England, he succeeded in winning the good- 
will of the leading statesmen, except the Duke of Wellington, who per- 
sisted in thinking the battle of Navarino an untoward event. Immedi- 
ately on his arrival he assumed the duties of his office, and set about the 
Herculean task of restoring order in the demoralized and disorganized 
condition of the country, with extraordinary activity and talent, having 
the aid of Mr. Tricoupes as Secretary of State. But the Porte still re- 
fusing to make peace, a French expedition sailed from Toulon, and Ibra- 
him Pacha was glad to accept terms and make his way back to Egypt 
with the remains of his shattered fleet. The last sail of the hostile arma- 
ment disappeared from Greece on the 7th of October, and the last battle 
on land was fought in Boeotia, a year after, by Prince Demetrius Ypse- 
lantes, who, with tliree thousand men, gained a brilliant victory over a 
force of seven thousand ; thus triumphantly completing a struggle, wliich 
eight years before his brother Alexander had opened by a disastrous de- 
feat. The Porte at last, terrified by the successes of the Russian arms, 
accepted the propositions of the great powers, and hostilities thenceforth 
ceased between the Turks and the Greeks. 

On a general review of the contest now brought to a close, a few of the 
leading incidents of which have been thus briefly treated, we may venture 
to assert that the Greeks were right in commencing it, and justified in com- 
mencing it when they did ; that they were entitled to the sympathy and 
support of Christian nations at the outset, — though, so far from receiving 
it, they were denounced by the Holy Alliance as rebels ; that the course of 
the great powers was at first cold and cruel, and afterwards wavering; 
and that they ungenerously required the emancipated country, at the 



A. D. 1832.] SELECTION OF OTHO AS KING. 629 

moment of pacification, to acknowledge itself tributary to the Porte, when 
the Greeks had fairly entitled themselves, by their conduct and sutferings, 
to the guaranties of Europe for their national existence and their absolute 
and unqualified independence. 

§ 18. The settlement of the affairs of the country now occupied the at- 
tention of the great powers. It was proposed at first to retain Greece 
under the sovereignty of the Porte, but to give it a separate administra- 
tion on the payment of a large annual tribute ; but this plan was found 
impracticable. It was next proposed to erect the country into an inde- 
pendent principality, and to give it a ruler from one of the reigning houses 
in Europe, under the title of Sovereign Prince. Prince Leopold, the 
present king of Belgium, was selected tor this station, and the choice was 
an excellent one. The Prince accepted the appointment, but, for rea- 
sons equally honorable to his head and heart, four months aftei'vvards, in 
May, 1830, abdicated the yet unoccupied tlirone. The principal reason 
which induced this step was the absurd boundary line on the north, pro- 
posed and insisted on by the protecting powers. Negotiations wei'e agaia 
renewed; fresh protocols filled up another year; when, in October, 1831, 
Count Capo DTstrias, who had been President of Greece for four years, 
with almost dictatorial power, was assassinated at Nauplia by two mem- 
bers of the Manote clan of Mavromichales, whose chief, Petros Bey, he 
liad illegally imprisoned. This tragical event was followed by six months 
of anarchy. Augustine Capo DTstrias, a younger brother of the mur- 
dered President, was nominally placed at the head of affairs. He found 
it impossible to stem the tide of opposition, and, lesigning his office, on the 
15th of April took passage with the dead body of his brother on board 
a Russian vessel bound for Corfbu. These events made it necessary to 
bring the arrangements of the great powers to the s[)eediest possible con- 
clusion. The plenipotentiaries now turned their attention to Louis, king 
of Bavaria, who had always been a lover of Hellenic ai't, and had ren- 
dered generous aid to Greece in the hour of her distress. Finally it was 
determined to make a kingdom of Greece, and to i-aise Prince Otho to 
the throne, with all the honors and dignities of sovereignty. Otho was 
the second son of the king, born June 1, 1815 ; consequently only seven- 
teen years old when charged with the august office of reconstructing a 
shattered state. The period of his majority was fixed at the age of twen- 
ty ; in the mean time a regency of three Bavarian statesmen — Count 
Armansperg, the Chevalier von Maurer, and General Heidecker — was 
appointed to carry on the government in the name of the youthful monarch. 
A loan of sixty millions of francs ($ 12,000,000) was guaranteed by the 
three powers, and a Bavarian army of thirty-five hundred men enrolled, 
for the maintenance of order in the new kingdom. On the 8th of Au- 
gust, 1832, Prince Otho was solemnly acknowledged by the national as- 
eembly at Pronoea — a suburb of Nauplia — the whole assembly rising 



630 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIII. 

and shouting with one voice, " A long life and a happy reign to Otho the 
First, King of Hellas." On the 6i;h of February, 1833, he landed at 
Nauplia, amidst the acclamations of the people; "a happy day," says a 
Greek writer, "on which the Hellenic nation, after three hundred and 
eighty years' bereavement of their imperial throne, had the happiness 
again to welcome their own monarch, and saw at length, with unspeaka- 
bL exultation, and with profound gratitude to the Most High, their long- 
ings fulfilled, their patience rewarded, and the struggles of four centui'ies 
crowned with triumph." 

The boundaries were determined by a treaty between the great powers 
and the Sublime Porte, in 1832. The northern line runs from the Gulf 
of Volo, or the Pagas^an Gulf, on the east, along the chain of Othrys, and 
strikes the Gulf of Arta, or the Ambracian Gulf, on the west. The east- 
ern line includes Euboea, the Northern Sporades, and the Cyclades. Crete 
was ceded to the Pacha of P]gypt, and the other islands of the JEgean, with 
the provinces north of the line above indicated, were replaced under the 
government of Turkey. The islands on the western coast still constitute 
the Septinsular Republic, under the protectorate of England. The coun- 
try was organized within these boundaries, and the ancient divisions with 
the classical names restored. It was divided into ten Nomoi, or Provinces, 
thirty Eparchias, or Cantons, and 453 Demoi, or Communes, with their sev- 
eral local administrations. The first Nome embraces Attica and Bceotia ; 
the second, Phocis and Phthiotis ; the third, ^tolia and Acarnania ; the 
fourth, Argolis and Corinth ; the fifth, Achaia and Elis ; the sixth, Arca- 
dia ; the seventh, Messenia ; the eighth, Laconia ; the ninth, Eubcea and 
the Northern Sporades ; the tenth, the Cyclades. 

The seat of government was at first established at Nauplia, but in 1835 
it was transferred to Athens ; and in the same year, the king, having at- 
tained his majority, assumed the reins of government, and addressed on 
the occasion a proclamation to the Greek people, which excited the liveliest 
hopes and the brightest anticipations of the future happiness of the country. 

In the following year the king was married to the Princess Amelia, the 
daughter of the Grand Duke of Oldenberg, then seventeen years old, and 
one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. The marriage took place 
on the 22d of November, 1836, and they arrived at the Peirfeus on the 
14th of February, 1837. The next day, the youthful pair entered Ath- 
ens under triumphal arches, decorated with laurel and myrtle branches, 
amidst the huzzas of the whole population. 

§ 19. The period has not yet arrived when the history of Otho's reign 
can be impartially written. In this brief sketch of events, it has not been 
intended to dwell much on details ; and in what remains, only a few addi- 
tional points will be considered. 

The Greeks have always been an eminently constitutional people. 
Ihe first step taken by them after the war broke out was to esta.blish a 



A. D. 1843.] KEVOLUTION OF 1843. 631 

constitution; and during the war, although dissensions often prevailed, 
still the Greeks were in the main governed by constitutional forms. 
Prince Leopold, during the brief period of his nominal sovereignty, was 
urged by President Capo D'Istrias to recognize the constitutional rights 
of the nation. When Prince Otho was elected by the great powers, the 
national assembly began a revision of the constitution, but were prevented 
from completing their labors by the intervention of the king of Bavaria, 
and the Residents of the protecting i^owers. The treaty which placed 
Otho on the throne contains not a word about a constitutional monarchy ; 
and it was well understood that Russia was hostile to constitutional gov- 
ernments everywhere, and Fi'anoe and England were perhaps indifferent. 
King Otho, therefore, was an al)solute monarch, so far as the treaty de- 
fined his p(nvers ; and if his government was administered upon absolute 
principles during the first ten years of his reign, both by the regency and 
by his cabinets after lie assumed the reins, the blame ought justly to be 
shared by the European powers, who neglected to guarantee a constitu- 
tion to the people. It is not proposed to dwell upon the complaints urged 
against the Bavarian dynasty in general ; but it must be admitted that the 
regency committed a grave error in not calling a national assembly, at an 
early date, to frame a constitution, and that the king, on attaining his 
majority, committed a similar error. At all events, the people became 
impatient for a constitutional government. The dissatisfaction of the 
country reached its height in 1843, and a universal determination was 
formed to have a constitution at all events, while there was an equally 
general purpose not to violate the respect due to their Majesties. Com- 
binations and arrangements were entered into between the civil author- 
ities and the military, to enforce the changes called for by the country, 
but to use no more force than was necessary for the purpose. The 
movement was headed by General Kalerges, who had been a distin- 
guished officer in the war of the Revolution, and was then inspector of the 
cavalry quartered at Athens. 

Some intimation of the design reached the government, and several ar- 
rests were ordered on the night of the 14th of September, 1843. This 
action of the government was seized upon as the moment to carry out the 
long-meditated revolution. Kalerges hastily summoned the officers and 
put the garrison in motion, amidst loud cries of Long life to the constitu- 
tion ! which were responded to by the large bodies of citizens now rapidly 
gathering from every quarter of the town. Kalerges marched his troops, 
accompanied by the citizens, to the square in front of the palace ; in a 
few moments the artillery came up, the guns were pointed at the pal- 
ace, and the artillerymen cried out, Zijra) to a-vvToyfia! Long life to the 
constitution! The king, appearing at the window, demanded the cause 
of the disturbance and of this parade of the garrison. Kalerges replied, 
60 as to be heard by the whole multitude, " The people of Greece and the 



632 HISTORY OF OREECE. [GhAP. LIII 

army desire that your Majesty will redeem the promise that the country 
should be governed constitutionally." The king ordered the troops to re- 
tire to their quarters, promising to consult with the ministers, the Council 
of State, and the ambassadors of the three protecting powers. But Kaler- 
ges replied, that " neither the garrison of Athens nor the people would 
quit the spot until his Majesty's decision should be made known." The 
Council of State, meantime, had been discussing the great question, what 
was to be done in this emergency. They were not unanimous ; but the 
constitutional party, led by General Church, Londos, and Rhegas Palame- 
des, were in the majority, and at last all united in drawing up a procla- 
mation, a list of a new ministry to be recommended to the king, and an 
address advising his Majesty to call a national assembly to prepare a 
constitution. Before the king's answer was given, the carriages of the for- 
eign ministers appeared at the gates of the palace, but were politely though 
firmly refused admittance. All submitted quietly except the minister of 
Prussia, who persisted, with harsh and disrespectful language, in demand- 
ing admittance to his Majesty. Kalerges, getting out of patience, finished 
the scene by telling the minister that " his advice had generally been unfor- 
tunate, and he was afraid the king had had too much of it lately." Upon 
this, the diplomatic gentlemen stepped into their carriages and drove ofl^ 
amidst the laughter of the people, who maintained the most perfect good 
humor through the whole scene. The king signed the ordinances ap- 
pointing a new ministry and convoking a national assembly. The troops, 
having been thirteen hours under arms, marched back to their barracks ; 
the citizens dispersed to their homes ; the business of the city was not in- 
terrupted an hour ; the courts sat without the slightest obstruction ; no 
tumults took place in the country ; a chief, named Griziotes, who was on 
his way from Euboea to the capital with more than a thousand irregular 
troops, hearing that the object had been accomplished, enjoined his fol- 
lowers to return to their homes, and asked leave "to come alone to obey 
the law, and not to give it." The next night the city was illuminated, and 
great rejoicings celebrated the event, without a single act of violence. 
In the same moderate spirit of tranquil triumph, the great constitutional 
victory was commemorated all over the country, and the 15th of Septem- 
ber was henceforth added to the national festivals. This revolution wa? 
accomplished without shedding a drop of blood ; without even disturbing 
the quiet of a single citizen, except a person named Tzinos, who had 
made himself odious as chief of police, by the cruelties he had inflicted 
in the discharge of his functions. He took shelter in the palace, but was 
given up, and merely sent away to one of the islands ; and the only 
uneasiness manifested anywhere was the opposition made by that island 
— Tenos — to receiving so odious a person on its shores. 

The king and queen drove out the next day, as usual, and were cheered 
by the people. The new ministry entered upon their functions ; the Ba< 



A.. D. 1844.] CONSTITUTION OP 1843. OS'S 

varians were dismissed, and many of them took the Austrian steamer for 
home in less than a week. The national assembly was convoked for the 
13th of November. The elections resulted most satisfactorily. The best 
men, almost without exception, were chosen. The assembly was opened 
on the 20th of November by the king in person, accompanied by his min- 
isters, and in the presence of the diplomatic body, all of whom attended 
except the Russian legation. In fact, Russia had totally withheld her 
sanction from the constitutional proceedings, not only at Athens, but 
through her ministers at the other courts. The king's speech was con- 
ceived in a most excellent spirit, and raised his popularity to the highest 
point; and the marks of affection and respect everywhere accorded to 
their Majesties, tlien and whenever they appeared in public, deeply im- 
pressed them. The assembly, consisting of two hundred and twenty-five 
members, was organized by the choice of Mr. Panoutsos Notaras, an emi- 
nent patriot, who took arms at the opening of the Revolution, being then 
eighty-four years old. He had been a member of all the preceding 
national assemblies. At the age of one hundred and seven, he was 
chosen a member for his native province, Corinth, and was now elected 
president of the constitutional assembly, in the midst of the acclamations 
of his colleagues. Four vice-presidents were appointed, — Mavrocordatos, 
Metaxas, CoUettes, and Londos. 

The draft of the constitution was submitted to the assembly on the 15th 
of January, and after being carefully discussed was laid before the king 
on the 4th of March. It was thoroughly studied by his Majesty, and 
returned by him with a few changes suggested, and on the 16th of 
March, 1844, to the great joy of the nation, the constitution was formally 
accepted. A deputation immediately waited upon his Majesty, and ex- 
pressed, in fervid and eloquent language, the thanks and gratitude of the 
assembly. 

The constitution embodies all the securities which were incorporated 
into the earlier forms, with such other principles as the actual state of the 
country made necessary. The settlement of Otho and his family on the 
throne is confirmed. The Oriental Church is the established religion, but 
all other religions are tolerated. Proselytizing and attacks upon the es- 
tablished religion are forbidden. All Greeks are declared equal in the 
eye of the law, and personal liberty is inviolable. No titles of nobility 
are to be created. It is declared that in Greece man is not bought and 
sold. A serf or a slave, whatever may be his nationality or his religion, 
is free from the moment that he sets foot on Hellenic ground. The 
press is free, and a censorship cannot be established. Public instruction 
is at the charge of the state ; torture and confiscation cannot be intro- 
duced, and the secrecy of letters is inviolable. The legislative power 
is divided between the king, the Chamber of Deputies, called Boule, and 
the Senate, or Gerousia; but all money bills must originate with the 
80 



634 HISTORY OF GREECE. [ChaP. LIIl 

Deputies. The king has the usual powers, under the usual restrictions, of 
a constitutional monarch. His person is inviolable, but his ministers may 
be impeached for maladministration. He is the executive magistrate. 
In case of the failure of heirs, and the vacancy of the throne, provision is 
made for the appointment of a regent, and then for the election of a king 
by vote of the assembly. The deputies (BovXevrat) are elected for three 
years. No one can be elected vi'ho has not reached the age of thirty years. 
The number of deputies is in proportion to the population, as I'egulated 
by law, but never to be less than eighty. The senators (FepovaiaaTui) are 
appointed by the king for life. A considerable number of conditions and 
qualifications are prescribed ; the legal age is forty. The minimum num- 
ber of senators is twenty-seven ; but the king may, when he sees fit, raise 
it to one half the number of the deputies. The princes of the blood and 
the heir presumptive of the crown are senators by right, as soon as they 
shall have completed theii' eighteenth yeai', but they are to have no voice 
in the deliberations until they have completed their twenty-fifth year 
The ministers are appointed by the king, with the usual responsibilities. 
Justice is administered by judges appointed by the king for life. Argu- 
ments before the tx-ibunals are to be public, unless such publicity be 
deemed by the court dangerous to morals and public order. A judge can 
accept no salaried employment, except that of Professor in the University. 
The trial by jury in civil cases, and in cases of political crimes and offen- 
ces of the press, is preserved. No oath can be exacted without a law 
which prescribes and determines it. All conflicting jurisdiction is to be 
reviewed and decided by the Areopagus, which is the supreme court, or 
court of final appeal. 

§ 20. Greece has been under a constitutional government about eleven 
years. But the condition of the country is not yet such as its' friends 
hoped and desired. Agriculture is still imperfect and rude. Roads are 
neglected. The public domain is badly administered, and the population 
has but slowly increased. Manufacturing industry has made some prog- 
ress, but only in the larger towns, such as Athens, Argos, and Nuuplia. 
The people are generally poor ; but few, if any, beggars are to be seen. 
A large accession of capital is needed. The country is loaded with 
debt, and the system of taxation is at once oppressive and wasteful. It 
must be remembered, however, that scarcely a quarter of a century has 
passed since the country emerged from a most destructive war, which left 
no villages standing, and reduced the people to a state of destitution 
almost unparalleled in the history of the world. 

Slow as the progress of Greece has been in material civilization, her 
zeal for education and literature is not surpassed by the most enlightened 
nations in the world. We have seen that one of the preparations for the 
Revolution was a rapid improvement in the schools, and a large increase 
of their number. During the war the provisional governments never lost 



C'nAP. LIII.] STATE OF EDUCATION. 635 

Biglit of this subject, and Count Capo D'Istrias gave to it much of his at- 
tention. The regency of Otho organized the system of public education 
more thoroughly than had previously been done. The Greeks also 
raised large sums by private subscriptions and by local taxes. Prince 
Demetrius Ypselantes left his whole fortune to found a school in Nauplia, 
which annually educates several hundred scholars. Many schools for 
girls have been established in different parts of Greece. There are two 
or three in Athens ; one under the charge of Madame Mano, a sister of 
Alexander Mavrocordatos ; another, the justly famous missionary school 
of our countryman, Dr. Hill, which has been of incalculable service to the 
women of Greece. Private schools flourish in the principal towns. But 
doubtless the most characteristic feature is the scheme of public education, 
as it now exists in the system of public schools. Under this system are, — 
1. The Demotic, or schools of mutual instruction, in which are taught read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, with the elements of history, geography, natural 
philosophy, &c. to both boys and girls. 2. The Hellenic schools, in which 
are taught, in addition to the further study of the above-enumerated 
branches, the elements of the ancient Greek grammar, and translations 
from ancient into modern Greek and the Latin and French languages. 
3. The Gymnasia, in which the Latin and Greek are continued, with 
philosophy, logic, ethics, physics, general history, mathematical geogra- 
phy, and the French, German, and English languages. 4. The Univer- 
sity of Otho, which is organized with four departments, or faculties, — 
philosophy, theology, medicine, and law. According to the reports of 
1853, more than forty thousand children were taught in the Demotic 
schools ; in the Hellenic schools, more than five thousand ; in the Gym- 
nasia, two thousand ; in the University, above six hundred ; — in all 
amounting to about fifty thousand. If we add the scholars of the numer- 
ous private schools, this number will be considerably increased. There 
were in 1853 three hundred and ten schools of mutual instruction, eighty- 
five Hellenic schools, and seven Gymnasia. Besides these, there is a 
teachers' school, a naval school, an agricultural school, and a polytechnic 
school. The University, organized in 1836, has a corps of nearly forty 
professors, and an excellent library of eighty thousand volumes. Among 
the professors are men who would do honor to any European university. 
The venerable Asopios expounds Homer with the vivacity of a Nestor. 
The lectures of Philippos Johannis, on moral philosophy, are admirable 
for purity of style and clearness of method. Rangabes expounds the fine 
arts with learning and taste. Manouses lectures eloquently on history. 
Pericles Argyropoulos, now the Minister of Foreign Affiiirs, is a most able 
professor of the law. Professor Kontogones is profoundly versed in Bib- 
lical literature, and expounds the Hebrew Scriptures to numerous and 
attentive classes. Many others might be mentioned in terms of great and 
just commendation. 



636 HISTORY OF GREECE. [Chap. LIU 

§ 21. The Greek, as spoken at the present day, is substantially the 
language tliat was spoken in the Alexandrine and Byzantine periods ; and 
its preservation is one of the most surprising instances of tenacious na- 
tionality. But there are impoi'tant distinctions between the ancient and 
modern, which grow out of changes in the structure, no less than modifi- 
cations of tlie meaning of words. Nearly all the words now emplo} ed by 
educated Greeks are the same words that were used by their ancestors ; 
but the grammar of the language is modern. From the time of Homer, 
down to six or seven centuries after Christ, though the language under- 
went many modifications, it retained unchanged its essential character- 
istics; and for a still longer period, namely, to the middle of the fifteenth 
century, the grammatical structure of the language, as employed in litera- 
ture, was still undisturbed, although the combination of I'hythm and accent 
had some time before ceased to mark the pronunciation. This period 
embi-aces about twenty-five hundred years. 

In the language spoken by the common people, the old system of gram- 
matical forms — perhaps never existing in its completeness among the 
uneducated — was abandoned somewhere between the sixth and eleventh 
centuries. We cannot trace the changes step by step, for want of docu- 
ments ; but it is certain that the popular speech of the Byzantine Empire, 
before the twelfth century, possessed all the grammatical peculiarities 
which mai'k the language of Greece as spoken and written at the present 
day. T!ie first poem published in modern Greek, was addressed by The- 
odore Ptochoprodromos, a contemporary of Anna Comnena, to the Em- 
peror Manuel Comnenos ; and. this has not only the grammatical, but the 
rhytlunical forms of the popular poetry at the present day. The changes 
that took place in the spoken language before the twelfth century are, — 
1. Several tenses of the verb were formed by auxiliaries, as in the other 
modern languages, instead of being modified forms of the root of the verb ; 
e. g. e'xco yfydyj/ei, ^Aw ypdyf/ei, I have written, I shall write, instead of 
yey pacf)., y^uyfrco. 2. The increased use of prepositions to express the 
relations of cases, instead of expressing them by changes of termination 
in the woi-ds. 3. The disappearance of quantity as the principal rhyth- 
mical pk-inent in poetical composition, and the substitution of accent, 
as in \\h' other modern languages, and perhaps the introduction of rhyme. 
4. Variou- changes and corruptions in the sounds of the vowels and diph- 
thongs, e-jiecially the representing the long e by six different letters 
or coinUiiKitions of letters, i, rj, ei, v, oi,vt. which originally, without doubt, 
were <!> -riniriiished from cnrJi otlier. In the successive periods of the 
occupation of Greece by Romans, Goths, Slavonians, French, and Turks, 
many words from the languages of these races found a lodgement in the 
Greek ; but at the present day they have nearly all disappeared from the 
language of good society. Among the uneducated people, as in all other 
countries, corruptions and vulgarisms prevail ; but not more than in Eng- 



Chap. LTII.J present language of Greece. 637 

land, France, and Germany. The general character of the language ia 
the same at Constantinople, Athens, Thebes, and Delphi. 

There is no subject to which more attention is given in the schools of 
Greece than the language. The present Hellenes are like the Greeks of 
old, in this respect ; no small part of the business of education is devoted 
to the mother tongue. It will readily be perceived, that the language 
of the great body of the people is a popular language, and, as such, dif- 
fers a good deal from that spoken in cultivated society. It will also 
be easily understood, that the state of things under the Turks was not 
favorable to the cultivation and maintenance of purity of speech, either 
among the learned or the unlearned classes ; and one of the first cares 
of the scholars who inspired the country with the hope of regeneration 
was to settle the principles of the language, which was not only cor- 
rupted by the admixture of foreign words, but exceedingly irregular 
in its forms and chaotic in its constructions. Coraes was the first and 
the ablest of these reformers ; and his system has been followed, with 
some modifications, by the majority of his educated countrymen. It 
recognizes the form and principles of the Greek as a modern lan- 
guage, but proposes to settle the usage and purify the language from 
Turkish, Italian, and other foreign mixtures, by substituting words of 
Greek derivation for these intrusive elements. There never was a time 
when even the popular speech was not, in by far the greater part of its 
words and phrases, genuine Greek. Some of the more enthusiastic in 
their classical zeal hoped to restore the language absolutely as it was 
spoken by Demosthenes. Mr. Buchon, with pleasant exaggeration, says: 
" Philology is the passion of all the Greek students, in whatever depart- 
ment. A physician, an advocate, a professor, has often become a minister 

of state, because he had a good mastery of his language Greek 

grammar is at the basis and summit of all instruction Not content 

with having eliminated all foreign words, the Athenians endeavor to ap- 
proach the ancient language as near as possible, in words, in forms, in the 
shape of phrases, and in mversions The paladins of Greek phi- 
lology march to the conquest of a grammatical form, as to a rich province. 
The dative had disappeared, — they have raised it from the tomb ; the 
aorist had been nearly extinguished, — all are seeking to breathe into it a 
new life ; at present they flatter themselves with the ardent hope of rer 
conquering the infinitive, which had emigrated so long ago." This was 
written in 1843 ; the process of purification and reformation has gone 
steadily on ; though the infinitive has not yet returned from its emigra- 
tion, the aorist is restored to perfect health. In short, the usage of the 
language may now be considered as established. Several of the recent 
grammars — those now of the highest authority in Athens — are admirable 
specimens of philological skill. The course of nature has not been vio- 
lated by forcing upon it the ancient constructions, while Turkish words, 



638 HISTORY OP GREECE. [Chap. LIU 

like the Turks themselves, have been unceremoniously turned out of 
doors. In the mean time, the natural growth of the language, and its ap- 
plication to the larger range of thought required by the superior civiliza- 
tion of the age, has made it necessary to enlarge its vocabulary by copi- 
ous drafts from other sources. Whence should these drafts be made ? 
Obviously, not from English, French, or Italian ; but naturally, as the 
Greek scholars instinctively decided, from the abundant wealth of the 
ancient Greek. Thus the word for steamboat was made of the two an- 
cient words which signify steam and boat, aTfionXotov, instead of to vapore, 
as the people at first called it. The post is called to Tax^dpofxelov, instead 
of posta ; the national bank is 17 eBviKX] Tpdne^a ; and the University is to 
ILavenia-TTiiiLov. A cigar-shop is appropriately called KaTrvoTrwXeiov, a place 
for selling smoke ; a barber's shop, as in ancient Athens, is called a 
Kovpelov ; a merchant tailor figures on his sign-board as an enwopos pdirTrjs ; 
a hotel is a ^evodox^'iov. 

§ 22. There are published in Greece about thirty newspapers, two or 
three literary journals, and an archaeological journal, most of them written 
with talent, and some, as the Panhellenion, which was commenced in 
1853, quite equal in elegance of style and power of argument to the best 
journals of Paris and London. The text-books for schools, Gymnasia, and 
the University are very numerous, and will bear a favorable comparison 
with those used in the Prussian schools. The lists of books printed by 
the principal publishers, Koromelas and Blastos, are surprisingly large.* 
Works of a higher grade than text-books are beginning to appear. Pro- 
fessor Asopios is publishing a very elaborate history of Greek literature, 
and Professor Rangabes another on Greek antiquities. The national 
history is much studied, and several very able and well-written works 
have recently appeared. Professor Paparrhegopoulos has written an ex- 
cellent summary of the history of Greece, and Spyridon Tricoupes is 
now publishing a History of the Revolution, which will take its place 
among the classics of his country. 

With regard to the poetical development of the nation, there is a dis- 
tinction to be made between the cultivated poetry and the popular poetry. 
The former has not yet attained its complete growth. Yet the woi'ks of 
Rhegas, Soutsos, Rizos, Rangabes, Zampelios, Zalacostas, and others, 
give rich promise for the poetical literature of Modern Greece. Christo- 
poulos has written in the popular dialect naive and charming songs, which 
depict the festive side of Hellenic life with infinite grace and vivacity. 

§ 23. At present the most characteristic feature in the poetry of the 
Greeks is the popular songs. Like the ancients, the present Hellenic 
race have a vein of natural poetry, which breaks out on all the occurren- 



* The number of copies annually published by Koromelas, of text-books for the schools 
Gymnasia, and the University, amounts to six hundred thousand. 



Chap. LIIL] POPULAR poetry. 639 

ces of life, — birth, death, separation, departure for a foreign country, — 
in the most simple and unpremeditated style. A large proportion of 
these songs exist only on the lips of the people, most of them having 
never been reduced to writing at all. The first collection ever made 
was by Fauriel, published in 1824 and 1825, and the ballads excited 
great attention in Europe. Goethe, then the undisputed monarch of 
Continental literature, pronounced them the most genuine poetry of art- 
less feeling and unsophisticated nature in our times. Since then, much 
has been added, commemorative of the events of the war, and several 
other collections have been made. It will not be long, however, before 
this period of popular poetry will have passed, and the dialects in 
which the songs are composed will have become, through the general 
diffusion of education, obsolete curiosities, for the researches of the mous- 
ing antiquarian. They ought, therefore, to be at once placed beyond 
the reach of casualty. The popular life, to which allusion has been 
made, includes that of the Klephts and Armatoles ; life on the islands, as 
well as the mainland; life in the valleys, as well as on the mountains; 
and the poems which depict it run back indefinitely into the Turkish 
times. Love and marriage, funerals, feasts, the dying scene, the sorrow 
for absent love, the joys of victory and revenge, the fortitude which bears 
tortures without a groan, and the courage which defies and dauntlessly 
encounters an overwhelming array of foemen, — these, and every feature 
in every scene of this popular Hellenic life, and every feeling of this sim- 
ple, fresh Hellenic heart, are rhythmically embodied. Among them we 
sometimes find strange echoes of old Greek poetry, still reverberating 
among the mountains. Chai-on, the ferryman of the Styx among the an- 
cients, has become a mysterious minister of Death, banging invisibly above 
the doomed, or sweeping like a storm over the mountains, on horseback, 
with the ghosts of the dead borne at his saddle-bow or marching at his 
side. The birds, whose voices and flight were full of omens to the an- 
cients, and whose knowledge was proverbial, in modern poetry are en- 
dowed with speech and supernatural powers of vision, and often appear 
as collocutors in the abruptly changing dialogue. The measure in which 
most of these poems are composed is the accented iambic, of fifteen syl- 
lables, without rhyme. 

We close this sketch with a few short specimens on different sub- 
jects, carefully abstaining from adding ornaments, and translating them 
line for line, in the same rhythm as the original. The brevity and 
abruptness of their style, the rapidity of the narrative, and the racy 
simplicity of their dialectic peculiarities, can scarcely be reproduced in 
another language ; and the charm they possess when read or heard in 
the open air on the mountains of Greece, in the midst of thv3 lite they 
embody, and the scenery that suggested their coloring, can scarcely be 
imagined where these accessories to the picture are wanting. 



640 HISTORY OF GREECE. [GhAP. LIIl. 

LOVE DETECTED. 

Maiden, we kissed, but 't was at night; and who tliink'st thou beheld usV 
The night beheld, the morn beheld, the moon and star of evening; 
The star dropped earthward from the sky, and told the sea the story; 
The sea at once the rudder told; the rudder told the sailor; 
The sailor sang it at the door, where sat his sweetheart listening. 

Among the Klephts the passion of love was not looked upon with much 
favor, as appears by the following, entitled, 

THE CAPTAIN IN LOVE. 

" Conduct thee wisely, Nicholas, as well becomes a captain. 

Nor witli thy children be at strife, nor venture to insult them; 

For they an evil pi'ot have laid, resolving they will slay thee." 

" Who is it with my children talks, who is it tells them stories? 

Well ! when the blooming spring shall come, and when shall come the summer, 

To Xerolibada I go, and to our ancient quarters.. 

Thither I go to wed my love, to take a fair-haired maiden : 

With golden coins I '11 deck my love, with strings of pearls adorn her." 

The Pallicars, they heard his words, and scornful was their anger, 

Three shots they gave him all at once, and all the three were fatal. 

"Down with the weakling fool! " they cried, "shoot down the worthless wanton- 

From us he took the golden coins to win the fair-haired maiden : 

Our fair-haired maid the pistol is, the sabre is our mistress." 

The following describes the death scene of a Klepht, who for a won 
der lived to old age, and died without being killed by a bullet. It com- 
bines, in a curious way, the strong contrasts and opposite feelings of the 
Klephtic character ; it is a kind of compound of piety, powder, and simple 
love of nature. The hero of it is resolved, even after death, to have a 
shot now and then at the Turks. To understand its simple allusions, 
we must remember that such, a family, living for the most part in the open 
air, would always select the bank of a running stream for their supper- 
table, and the sparkling water for their beverage. 

THE DYING CHIEF. 

The sun was setting in the west, when Demos gives his orders : — 
"Hasten, my children, to the brook, to eat your bread at evening; 
And thou, Lampakes, nephew mine, come, take thy seat before me. 
Here ! wear the arms that now I wear, and be a valiant captain ; 
And ye, my children, take my sword, deserted by its master. 
And cut green'branches from the trees, and spread a couch to rest me, 
And hither bring the holy man, that he may haste to shrive me. 
That I may tell him all the sins I ever have committed 
While thirty years an Armatole, and twenty-five a robber. 
But now the conqueror Death has come, and I for Death am ready. 
Build me a broad and spacious tomb, and let the mound be lofty, 
That I may stand erect and fire, then stoop and load the musket; 
And on the right hand of the tomb, a window leave wide open. 
That swallows in their flight may come, the early spring announcing. 
And nightingales, of lovely May, in morning song, may tell me." 

The subject of the following is a dispute between Olympus and Kis- 



Chap. LIIL] POPULAR POETRY. 641 

savos — the ancient Ossa — on the right of precedence. The persons 
of the dialogue are the two rival mountains, an eagle, and the head of 
a slain warrior, each of whom has something characteristic to say. It ia 
called 

OLYMPUS AND KISSAVOS. 

Olympus once, and Kissavos, two neighboring mounts, contended, 

Wliicli of the two the rain should pour, and which shed down the snow-storm; 

And Kissavos pours down the rain, Olympus sheds the snow-storm. 

Then Kissavos in anger turns, and speaks to high Olympus. 

KISSAVOS. 

Browbeat me not, Olj'mpus, thou by robber feet betrampled, 
For I am Kissavos, the mount, in far Larissa famous ; 
I am the joy of Turkestan, and of Larissa's Agas. 

, OLYMPUS. 

Ha! Kissavos! ha! renegade! thou Turk-betrampled hillock: 
The Turks they tread thee under foot, and all Larissa's Agas; 
I am Olympus, he of old, renowned the world all over, 
And I have summits forty-two, and two-and-sixty fountains, 
And every fount a banner has, and every bough a robber, 
And on my highest summit's top an eagle fierce is sitting, 
And holding in his talons clutched a head of slaughtered warrior. 

EAGLE. 

What hast thou done, head of mine, of what hast thou been guilty? 
How came the chance about that thou art clutched within my talons? 

HEAD. 

Devour, bird, my youthful strength, devour my manly valor, 

And let thy pinion grow an ell, a span thy talon lengthen, 

In Luros and Xeromeros I was an Armatolos ; 

In Ghasia and Olympus next, twelve j'ears I was a robber; 

And sixty Agas have I killed, and left their hamlets burning. 

And all the Turks and Albanese that on the field of battle 

My hand has slain, my eagle brave, are more than can be numbered. 

But me the doom befell at last, to perish in the battle. 

The following ballad commemorates the bravery of Tsamados,* repre- 
senting him as returning after death in the shape of a bu-d to revisit 
Georgakes, a friend in arms, Avho expresses his wish to know what is 
passing at Mesolongi. 



* In May, 1825, Ibrahim Pacha attacked Palseo-Castro and the little island Sphacteria, 
with a powerful fleet and army. Mavrocordatos had rushed to their defence. He threw 
himself with his suite into the island, which was at the moment held by a brave young Hy- 
di'iote captain named Tsamados, and a small body of soldiers and sailors. Fifteen hundred 
Arabs lauded on the island, but met with a desperate resistance from Tsamados and his 
gallant band. Tsamados was shot in the leg, but continued fighting on his knees until he 
was knocked down and killed. When this was known, the sailors, regaining their brig, 
on board which Mavrocordatos had already taken refuge, ran out through the Turkish 
fleet of thirty-four ships of war, and, having been exposed for more than four hours to their 
fire, escaped with riddled sails and rigging shot away, with two men killed and eight 
wounded. The surrender of Navarino followed ; and not long after, the whole Morea, ex- 
cept the unconquerable Manotes, lay at the mercy of Ibrahim. 
81 



642 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



[Chap. Lin 



TSAMADOS. 

I would I were a bird to fly and visit Mesolongi, 

That I miglit see them wield the sword, and how they ply the musket; 

How wnge the war in Roumeli, her still unconquered vultures. 

A bird then came, on golden wing, and said to me, in singing, 

" Patience, Georgakes mine ! if thou for Arab blood art thirsting 

Here too are Agarenes enow for even thee to slaughter. 

Beholdest thou yon Turkish ships, now floating in the distance? 

Charon is standing over them, and they shall burn to ashes." 

Itly bird, where didst thou learn these things that thou to me art telling? 

"I seem unto thine eyes a bird, but 't is no bird thou seest; 

For in the island opposite to Navarino's haven 

I yielded up my latest breath, against the Moslem fighting. 

I am Tsamados, from the tomb back to the world returning; 

For though from heaven where I dwell, I clearly can behold thee. 

To come and see thee face to face my heart was ever longing." 

And what wouldst see among us now, in our unhappy country ? • 

Hast thou not heard what has befallen, how fares it in Morea? 

" Georgakes mine, be not downcast, nor lose thy manly courage ; 

If the Morea wars not now, the time again is coming 

When they will fight like savage beasts, and'chase away the foemen, 

And blackened bones be strewn around the walls of Mesolongi, 

And Souli's lions prowling there shall seize their pre}' exulting." 

And then the bird resumed his flight, and mounted up to heaven. 





Mount Olympus. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Book I. — MYTHICAL AGE. 



1184. Capture of Troy. 

1124. Emigration of the Boeotians from Thessaly into Boeotia. 
1104. Eeturii of the Heraclidce. Conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. 
1050. CumtE founded. 
850. Probable age of Homer. 

Book II. — GROWTH OF THE GEECIAN STATES. 

776. Commencement of the OljTnpiads. Age of Lycurgus. 

747. Pheidon, tyrant of Argos, celebrates the 8th Olympic games. 

743. Beginning of the first Messenian war. 

734. Syracuse founded by Archias of Corinth. 

723. End of the first JMessenian war. 

720. Sybaris, in Italy, founded by the Achasans. 

710. Croton, in Italy, founded by the Achceans. 

70S. Tarentuni founded by the Lacedcemonian Parthenii, under Phalanthus.. 

700. Arcliilocluis of Paros, the iambic poet, flourished. 

693. Simonides of Amorgos, the lyric poet, flourished. 
690. Foiuidation of Gela in Sicily. 

685. The beginning of the second Messenian war, 

683. First aTmual Arohon at Athens. Tyrtreus, the Athenian poet, came to Sparta after 
the first success of the Messeuians, and by his martial songs roused the faintmg 
courage of tlie LaccdLenioniaiis. 

670. Alcnian, a native of Sardis in Lydia, and the chief lyric poet of Sparta, flourished. 

668. End of the second Jlessenian war. 

664. A se:i-fight between the Corinthians and Corcyrojans, the most ancient sea-rigJit re- 
corded. Zaleucus, the la^vo•iv^'r in Locri Epizephyrii, flourished. 

657. Byzantium founded li\' tlic .Megarians. 

655. The BacjhiadEe expelled from Corinth. Cypselus begins to reign. 

644. Pantaleon, king of Pisa, celebrates the Olympic games. 

630. Cyrene in Libya founded by Battus of Thera. 

625. Periander succeeds Cypselus at Corinth. Arion flourished in the reign of Periander. 

624. Legislation of Dracon at Athens. 

612. Attempt of Cylon to make himself master of Athens. 

610. Sappho, Alcrexis, and Stesichorus flourished. 

600. JIassilia in Gaul founded by the Phocfeans. . ♦ 

596. Eijimenides, the Cretan, came to Athens. 

595. Commencement of tlie CirrliEcan or Sacred War, which lasted ten years. 

694. Legislation of Solon, who was Athenian archon in this year. 
591. Cirrha taken by the Amphictyons. 

■689. Commencement of the government of Pittacus at Mytilene. 

586. The coiKjuest of the Cirrhteans completed and the Pythian games celebrated. Th« 

Seven Wise Men flourished. 
585. Death of Periander. 
682. Agrigentum founded. 
581. The dynasty of the Cypsehdce ended. 



644 HISTORY OP GREECE. 

B. c. 

579. Pittacus resigns the government of Mytilene. 

572. The war between Pisa and Ells ended by the subjection of the Pisseans. 

560. Pcisistratus usurps the government of Athens. Ibycus of Ehegium, the lyric poet, 
flourished. 

559. Cyrus begins to reign in Persia. 

556. Simonides of Ceos, the lyric poet, born. 

548. The temple at Delphi burnt. Anaximeiies flourished. 

546. Sardis taken by Cyrus, and the Lj'dian monarchy overthrown. Hipponax, the iambic 
poet, flourished. 

544. Pherecydes of Syros, the philosopher, and Theognis of Megara, the poet, flourished. 

539. Ibycus of Ehegium, the lyric poet, flourished. 

538. Babylon taken by Cyrus. Xenoplianes of Colophon, the philosopher, flourished. 

535. Thespis the Athenian first exhibits tragedy. 

532. Polycrates becomes tyrant of Samos. 

531. The philosopher Pythagoras and the poet Anacreon flourished. 

529. Death of Cyrus and accession of Cambyses as king of Persia. 

527. Death of Peisistratus, thirty-three years after his first usurpation. 

525. Cambyses conquers Egypt in the fifth year of his reign. Birth of ^schylus. 

523. Choerilus of Athens exhibits tragedy. 

522. Polycrates of Samos put to death. Birth of Pindar. Death of Cambyses, usurpation 
of the Magi, and accession of Darius to the Persian throne. Hecatieus, the histo- 
rian, flourished. 

514. Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, slain by Harmodius and Aristogeiton. 

511. Phrynichus, the tragic poet, flourished. 

510. Expulsion of Hippias from Athens. The ten tribes instituted by Cleistbeues. 

504. Charon of Lampsacus, tlie historian, flourished. 

BOl. Naxos besieged by Aristagoras and the Persians. Aristagoras revolts from the PersiaDS. 



Book III. — THE PERSIAN WARS. 

500. Aristagoras solicits aid from Athens and Sparta. Birth of Auiixnaroras. First year of 
th(^ Tni'iMii l^>v^■.I^. Sin'i'is Inirnt. /E^chyln'. !'?i-("l *----'-^^-~l'v\ fii-^t- px'iibits tragedy. 
498. Third year of the Ionian revolt. Aristagoras slain in Tlirace. Death of Pythagoras. 
497. Fourth year of the Ionian revolt. Histiajus comes down to the coast. Birth of Hel- 

lanicus of Mytilene, the historian. 
496. Fifth year of the Ionian revolt. Birth of Sophocles. 
495. Sixth and last year of the Ionian revolt. The lonians defeated in a naval battle near 

Miletus, and Miletus taken. 
493. The Persians take tlie islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. Miltiades flies from the 

Chersonesus to Athens. 
492. Mardouius, the Persian general, invades Europe, and unites Macedonia to the Persiau 

empire. 
491. Darius sends heralds to Greece to demand earth and water. Demaratus, king of Spar- 
ta, deposed by the intrigues of his colleague Cleomenes. He flies to Darius. 
490. Datis aiid Artaphernes, the Persian generals, invade Europe. They take Eretria in 

Eubcea and land in Attica. They are defeated at Marathon by the Athenians under 

the command of Miltiades. jEschylus fought at the battle of Marathon, set. 35. 

War between Athens and ^gina. 
489. Miltiades attempts to conquer Paros, but is repulsed. He is accused, and, unable to 

paj' the fine in which lie was condemned, is thrown into prison, where he died. 
486. Revolt of Egypt from the Persians in the fourth year after the battle of Marathon. 
485. Xerxes, king of Persia, succeeds Darius. Gelon becomes master of Syracuse. 
484. Egypt reconquered by the Persians. Herodotus born. jEschylus gains the prize in 

tragedy. 
483. Ostracism of Aristeides. 
481. Themistocles the leading man at Athens. 



CHKONOLOGICAL TABLE. 645 

B. C. 

480. Xerxes invades Greece. He sets out from Sardis at the beginning of tlie spring. The 
battles of Thermopylte and Artemisium were fought at the time of tlie Olympic 
games. The Athenians deserted their city, which was talien by Xerxes. The 
battle of Salamis, in which the fleet of Xerxes was destroyed, was fought in the 
autumn. 
Birth of Euripides. 

479. After the return of Xerxes to Asia, Mardonius, who was left in the command of the 
Persian army, passed the winter in Thessaly. In tlie spring he marches southward 
and occupies Athens ten months after its occupation by Xerxes. At the battle of 
Plat^a, fought in September, he is defeated by the Greeks under the command of 
Pausanias. On the same day the Persian fleet is defeated offMycale by the Greek 
fleet. Sestos besieged by the Greeks in the autumn and surrendered in the follow- 
ing spring. 

478. Sestos taken by the Greeks. The history of Herodotus terminates at the siege of 
Sestos. 

Book IV. — THE ATHENIAN SUPEEMACY AND THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 

478. In consequence of the haughty conduct of Pausanias, the maritime allies place them 
selves under the supremacj' of Athens. Commencement of the Athenian ascen- 
dency or empire, which lasted about 70 j-^ears, — 65 before the ruin of the Athenian 
afRiirs in Sicily, 73 before the capture of Athens by Lysander. 

476. Cimon, commanding the forces of the Athenians and of the allies, expels the Persians 
from Eion on the Strymon, and then takes the island of Scyros, where the bones 
of Theseus are discovered. 
Simonides, ast. 80, gains the prize in the dithyrambic chorus. 

471. Themistocles, banished by ostracism, goes to Argos. Pausanias convicted of treason 
and put to death. Thucydides the historian born. 

469. Pericles begins to take part in public affairs, forty years before his death. 

468. Mycenas destroyed by the Argives. Death of Aristeides. Socrates born. Sophocles 
gained his first tragic victory. 

467. Simonides, sst. 90, died. 

466. Naxos revolted and sulKlued. Great victory of Cimon over the Persians at the river 
Eurymedon, in Pamphylia. Themistocles flies to Persia. 

465. Revolt of Thasos. Death of Xerxes, king of Persia, and accession of Artaxerxes I. 

464. Earthquake at Sparta, and revolt of the Helots and Messenians. Cimon marches to 
the assistance of the Lacedaemonians. Zeno of Elea flourished. 

463. Thasos subdued by Cimon. 

461. Cimon marches a second time to the assistance of the Lacedsemonians, but his offers 
are declined by the latter, and the Athenian troops sent back. Ostracism of Cimon. 
Pericles "at the head of public affairs at Athens. 

460. Eevolt of Inaros, and first vear of the Egyptian war, which lasted six years. The 
Athenians sent assistance to the Egyptians. 

458. The CrcstoVt of iEschylus performed. 

457. Battles in the Megarid between the Athenians and Corinthians. The Lacedsemonians 
march into Doris to assist the Dorians against the Phocians. On their return they 
are attacked by the Athenians at Tanagra, but the latter are defeated. The Athe- 
nians commence building their long walls, which were completed in the following 
year. 

456. The Athenians, commanded by Myronides, defeat the Thebans at (Enophyta. Recall' 
of Cimon from exile. Death of ^Eschylus, set. 69. 

455. The Messenians conquered by the Lacedremonians in the tenth j^ear of the war. Tol- 
mides, the Athenian general, settles the expelled Messenians at Naupactus. See 
B. c. 464. Tolmides sails round Peloponiiesus with an Athenian fleet, aixl does 
great injury to the Peloponnesians. 
End of the Egyptian war in the sixth year. See b. c. 460. All Egypt conquered by 
the Persians, except the marshes, where Amyrtasus continued to hold out for some 
years. See b. c. 449. 



646 HISTORY OP GREECE. 

B. c. 

455. Euripides, fet. 25, first gains the prize in tragedy. 

454. Campaign of Pericles at Sicyon and in Acarnania. 

Cratiniis, the comic writer, flourished. 
452. Five years' truce between the Athenians and Peloponnesians, made through the inter- 
vention of Cimon. 
Annxagoras, sEt. 50, withdraws from Athens, after residing there thirty years. 
449. Eenewal of the war with Persia. The Athenians send assistance to Amyrtajus. Death 

of Cimou and victory of the Athenians at Salamis in Cyprus. 
448. Sacred War between the Delphians and Phocians for the possession of the oracle and 
temple. The Lacedsemonians assisted the Delphians, and the Athenians the Pho- 
cians. 
447. The Athenians defeated at Chferonea by the Boeotians. 

445. Eevolt of Eubo^a and Jlegara from Athens. The five years' truce having expired (see 

15. c. 450), the Lacedcemonians, led by Pleistoanax, invade Attica. After the 

Lacedremonians had retired, Pericles 'recovers Euboea. The thirty years' truce 

between Athens and Sparta. 

444. Pericles begins to have the sole direction of public affairs at Athens. Thucydides, the 

son of Milesias, the leader of the aristocratical party, ostracized. 
443. The Athenians send a colony to Thurii in Italy. Herodotus, set. 41, and Lysias, set. 15, 

accompany this colony to Thurii. 
441. Euripides gains the first prize in tragedy. 

440. Samos revolts from Athens, but is subdued by Pericles in the ninth month. Sopho- 
cles, «t. 55, was one of the ten Athenian generals who fought against Samos. 
439. Athens at the height of its glory. 
437. Colony of Agnon to Amphipolis. 
436. Cratinus, the comic poet, gains the prize. 
435. War between the Corinthians and Corcyrseans on account of Epidamnus. The Co 

riuthians defeated by the Corcyrteans in a sea-fight. 
434. The Corinthians make great preparations to carry on the war with vigor. 
433. The Corcyrceans and Corinthians send embassies to Athens to solicit assistance. The 

Athenians form a defensive alliance with the Corcyrseans. 
432. The Corcyrceans, assisted by the Athenians, defeat the Corinthians in the spring. lu 
the same year Potideea revolts from Athens. Congress of the Peloponnesians in the 
autumn to decide upon war with Athens. 
Anaxngoras, prosecuted for impiety at Athens, withdraws to Lampsacus, where he 

died about four years afterwards. 
Aspasia prosecuted by the comic poet Hermippus, but acquitted through the influence 

of Pericles. 
Prosecution and death of Pheidias. 
431. First year of the Peloponnesian war. The Thebans make an attempt xtpon Platsea 
tv.'o months before midsummer. Eighty days afterwards Attica is invaded by the 
Peloponnesians. Alliance between the Athenians and Sitalces, king of Thrace. 
Hellanicus, ast. 65, Herodotus, «t. 53, Thucydides, set. 40, at the commencement of 

the Peloponnesian war. 
The J/M/feffl of luiripides exhibited. 
430. Second year of the Peloponnesian vi^ar. Second invasion of Attica. The plague 

rtiges at Athens. 
429. Third year of the Peloponnesian war. Potidsea surrenders to the Athenians after a 
siege of more than two years. Naval actions of Phormio in the Corinthian Gulf. 
Commencement of the siege of Platsea. 
Death of Pericles in the autumn. 
Birth of Plato the philosopher. 
Eupolis and Phrynichus, the comic poets, exhibit. 
428. Fourth year of the Peloponnesian war. Third invasion of Attica. Eevolt of all Les- 
bos, except Methymna. Mytilene besieged towards the autumn. 
Death of Anaxagoras, tet. 72. 
127. P'ifth year of the Peloponnesian war. Fourth invasion of Attica. Mytilene taken by 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 647 

B. c 

the Atlienians, and Lesbos recovered. The demagogue Cleon begins to have gi-eat 
influence m public affairs. Platsea surrendered to the Peloponnesians. Sedition at 
Corcyra. Tlie Atlienians send assistance to the Leontines in Sicily. 
Aristophanes, the comic poet, first exhibits. 
Gorgias ambassador from Leontini to Athens. 
426. Sixth year of the Peloponnesian war. The Peloponnesians do not invade Attica, in 
consequence of an earthqual^e. 
Lustration of Delos. 
125. Seventh year of the Peloponnesian war. Fifth invasion of Attica. Demosthenes 
takes possession of Pj^los. The Spartans in the island of Sphacteria surrendered to 
Cleon seventy-two days afterwards. 
Accession of Darius Nothus. 
The Acliarnians of Aristophanes. 
424. Eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. Nicias ravages the coast of Laconia and cap- 
tures the island of Cytlrera. JIarch of Brasidas into Thrace, who obtains possession 
of Acanthus and Amphipolis. The Athenians defeated by the Thebaus at Delium. 
Socrates and Xenophon fought at the battle of Delium. 
Thucydidcs, the historian, commanded at Amphipolis. 
The Knights of Aristophanes. 
423. Ninth year of-the Peloponnesian war. Truce for a year. 

Thucydides banished in consequence of the loss of Amphipolis. He wasHwenty years 

in exile. 
The Clouds of Aristophanes first exhibited. 
422. Tenth year of the Peloponnesian war. Hostilities in Thrace between the Lacedaemo- 
nians and Athenians. Both Brasidas and Cleon fall in battle. 
The Wasps of Aristophanes and second exhibition of the Clouds. 
Death of Cratinus. 

Protagoras, the sophist, comes to Athens. 
421. Eleventh year of the Peloponnesian war. Truce, for fifty years between the Athe- 
nians and Lacedsemonians. Though this truce was hot formally declared to be at 
an end till b. c. 414, there were notwithstanding frequent hostilities meantime. 
420. Twelfth year of the Peloponnesian war. Treaty between the Athenians and Argives 

effected by means of Alcibiades. 
419. Thirteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. Alcibiades marches into Peloponnesus. 

The Peace of Aristophanes. 
418. Fourteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. The Athenians send a force into Pelo- 
ponnesus to assist the Argives against the Lacedemonians, but are defeated at the 
battle of Mantinea. Alliance between Sparta and Argos. 
417. Fifteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. 

416. Sixteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. The Athenians conquer Melos. 
415. Seventeenth year of tlie Peloponnesian war. Tlie Athenian expedition against Sicily. 
It sailed after midsummer, commanded by Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. Mu 
tilation of the Hermse at Athens before the fleet sailed. The Athenians take Cata- 
na. Alcibiades is recalled home: he makes his escape, and takes refuge with the 
Lacedaemonians. 
Andocides, the orator, imprisoned on the mutilation of the Hermse. He escapes by 
turning informer. 
414. Eighteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. Second campaign in Sicily. The Athe- 
nians invest Syracuse. Gylippus, the Lacedsemouian, comes to the assistance of 
the Syracusans. 
The Birds of Aristophanes. 
413. Nineteenth year of. the Peloponnesian war. Invasion of Attica and fortification of 
Decelea, on the advice of Alcibiades. 
Third campaign in Sicily. Demosthenes sent with a large force to the assistance of 
the Athenians. Total destruction of the Athenian army and fleet. Nicias and De- 
mosthenes surrender and are put to death on tlie 12tli or 13th of September, six- 
teen or seventeen days after the eclipse of the moon, which took place on the 27th 
of August. 



648 HISTORY OF GREECE. 

B.C. 

412. Twentieth year of the Peloponnesian war. The Lesbians revolt from Athens. Alci- 
biades sent by the Lacedsemonians to Asia to form a treaty with the Persians. He 
succeeds in his mission and forms a treaty with Tissaphern^s, and urges the Athe- 
nian aUies in Asia to revolt. 

The Andromeda of Euripides. 
411. Twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian war. Democracy abolished at Athens, and 
the government intrusted to a council of Four Hiindred. This council holds the 
government four months. The Athenian army at Samos recalls Alcibiades from 
exile and appoints hhn one of its generals. He is afterwards recalled by a vote 
of the people at Athens, but he remained abroad for the next four years at the head 
of the Athenian forces. Mindarus, the Lacedoemonian admiral, defeated at Cynos- 
sema. 

Antiphou, the orator, had a great share in the establishment of the Four Hundi'ed. 
After their downfall he is brought to trial and put to death. 

The history of Thucydides suddenly breaks off in the.middle of this year. 

The Lysistrata and Thesmoplioriazusoe of Aristophanes. 

Lysias returns from Thurii to Athens. 
410. Twenty-second year of the Peloponnesian war. Mindarus defeated and slain by Al- 
cibiades at Cyzlcus. 
109. Twenty-third year of the Peloponnesian war. 

The Philoctetes of Sophocles. 
108. Twenty-fourth year of the Peloponnesian war. Alcibiades recovers Byzantium. 

The Orestes of Euripides. 

The Plutus of Aristophanes. 
407. Twenty-fifth year of the Peloponnesian war. Alcibiades returns to Athens. Lysan- 
der appointed the Lacedasmonian admiral and supported by Cyrus, who this year 
received the government of the countries on the Asiatic coast. Antiochus, the 
lieutenant of Alcibiades, defeated by Lysander at Notiura in the absence of Alcibi- 
ades. Alcibiades is in consequence banished, and ten new generals are appointed. 
408. ' Twenty-sixth year of the Peloponnesian war. Callicratidas, who succeeded Lysander 
as Lacedaemonian admiral, defeated by the Athenians in the sea-fight off the Argi- 
nusse islands. The Athenian generals condemned to death because they had not 
picked up the bodies of those who had fallen in the battle. 

Dionysius becomes master of Syracuse. 

Death of Eui-ipides and Sophocles. 
405. Twenty-seventh year of the Peloponnesian war. Lysander defeats the Athenians off 
jEgospotami, and takes or destroys all their fleet with the exception of eight ships 
which fled with Conon to Cyprus. 

Tlie Frogs of Aristophanes. 
404. Twenty-eighth and last year of the Peloponnesian war. Athens taken by Lysander in 
the spring, on the 16th of the month Munychion. Democracy abolished, and the 
government intrusted to thirty men, usually called the Thirty Tyrants. 

The Thirty Tyrants held their power for eight months, till Thrasybulus occupied 
Phyte and advanced to the Peirseus. 

Death of Alcibiades during the tyranny of the Thirty. 

Book V. — THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPEEMACIES. 

403. Thrasybulus and his party obtain possession of the Peirseus, from whence they carried 
on war for several months against the Ten, the successors of the Thirty. They ob- 
tain possession of Athens before July; but the contest between the parties was not 
finally concluded till September. 
Thucydides, set. 68, returns to Athens. 
401. Expedition of Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes. He falls in the battle of Cunaxa, 
which was fouglit in the autumn. His Greek auxiliaries commence tlieir return to 
Greece, usually called the retreat of the Ten Thousand. 
First year of the war of Lacedsemon and Elis. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 649 

B, C. 

401. Xenophon accompanied Cyrus, and afterwards was the principal general of the Greeks 
in their retreat. 
The CEdiiMs at Colonus of Sophocles exhibited after his death by his grandson Soph- 
ocles. 
400. Return of the Ten Thousand to Greece. 

Second year of the war of Lacedsemon and Elis. 
The speech of Andocides on the Mysteries. 
399. The Lacedaemonians send Thimbron with an army to assist the Greek cities in Asia 
against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus. The remainder of the Ten Thousand incor- 
porated with the troops of Thimbron. In the autumn Thimbron was superseded by 
Dercyilidas. 
Third and last year of the war of Lacedsemon and EHs. 
Death of Socrates, set. 70. 
Plato withdraws to Megara. 
398. Dercyllidas continues the war in Asia with success. 
397. Dercyllidas still continues the war in Asia. 
396. Agesilaus supersedes Dercyllidas. First campaign of Agesilaus in Asia. He winters 

at Ephesus. 
395. Second campaign of Agesilaus in Asia. Hs defeats Tissaphernes, and becomes master 
of Western Asia. Tissaphernes superseded by Tithraustes, who sends envoys into 
Greece to induce the Greek states to declare war against Lacedsemon. Commence- 
ment of the war of the Greek states against Lacedsemon. Lysander slain at Hali- 
artus. 
Plato, set. 34, returns to Athens. 
894. Agesilaus recalled from Asia to fight against the Greek states, who had declared war 
against Lacedsemon. He passed the Hellespont about midsummer, and was at the 
entrance of Boeotia on the 14th of August. He defeats the allied forces at Coronea. 
A little before the latter battle the Lacedtemonians also gained a victory near Cor 
inth; but about the same time Conon, the Athenian admiral, and Pharnabazus, 
gained a decisive victory over Peisander, the Spartan admiral, off Cnidus. 
Xenophon accompanied Agesilaus from Asia and fought against his country at Coro 
nea. He was in consequence banished from Athens. He retired under Lacedae- 
monian protection to Scillus, where he composed his works. 
893. Sedition at Corinth and victory of the Lacedaemonians at Lechseum. Pharnabazus 
and Conon ravage the coasts of Peloponnesus. Conon begins to restore the long 
walls of Atliens and tlie fortifications of the Peirseus. 
391. The Lacedaemonians under Agesilaus ravage the florinthian territory, but a Spartan 
mora is ciit to pieces by Iphicrates. 
The EcdesiazuscB of Aristophanes. 
Expedition of Agesilaus into Acarnania. 
Speech of Andocides " On the Peace." He is banished. 
390. Expedition of Agesipolis into ArgoHs. The Persians again espouse the cause of the 
Lacedoemonians, and Conon is thrown into prison. The Athenians assist Evagoras 
of Cyprus against the Persians. Thi-asybulus, the Athenian commander, is defeat- 
ed and slain by the Lacedaemonian Teleutias at Aspendus. 
389. Agyrrhius sent, as the successor of Thrasybulus, to Aspendus, and Iphicrates to the 
Hellespont. 
Plato, £et. 40, goes to Sicily ; the first of the three voyages. 
388. Antalcidas, the LacedEemouian commander on the Asiatic coast, opposed to Iphicrate* 
and Chabrias. 
The second edition of the Plutus of Aristophanes. 
387. The peace of Antalcidas. 

386. Eestoration of PIat»a, and independence of the towns of Boeotia. 
885. Destruction of llantinea by the LacedEemonians under Agesipolis. 
384. Birth of Aristotle. 
B82. First year of the Olyntliian war. 

Phcebidas seizes the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes. 
82 



650 HISTORY OF GREECE. 

B.C.' 

382. Birth of Demosthenes. 

381. Second year of the Olynthian war. 

380. Third year of the Olynthian war. 

The Panegyricus of Isocrates. 
379. Fourth and last year of the Olynthian war. 

The Cadmea i-ecovered by the Theban exiles in the winter. 
378. Cleombrotus sent into Boeotia in the middle of winter, but returned without effecting 
anything. The Lacedaemonian Sphodrias makes an attempt upon the Peir^us. 
The Athenians form an alliance with the Thebans against Sparta. First expedition 
of Agesilaus into Boeotia. 
Death of Lysias. 
377. Second expedition of Agesilaus into Boeotia. 

376. Cleombrotus marches into Boeotia, and sustains a slight repulse at the passes of 
Cithseron. 
The LacedEeraonian fleet conquered by Chabrias off Naxos, and the Athenians recover 
the dominion of the sea. 
875. Cleombrotus sent into Phocis, which had been invaded by the Thebans, who withdraw 

into their own country on his arrival. 
374. The Athenians, jealous of the Thebans, conclude a peace with Lacedjemon. Timo- 
theus, the Athenian commander, takes Corcyra, and on his return to Athens 
restores the Zacynthian exiles to their country. Tliis leads to a renewal of the war 
between Athens and Lacedjemon. 
Second destruction of Flatsea. 
Jason elected Tagus of Thessaly. 
873. The Lacedsemonians attempt to regain possession of Corcyra, and send Mnasippus 
with a force for the purpose, but he is defeated and slain by the Corcyrseans.. Iphic- 
rates, with Callistratus and Chabrias as his colleagues, sent to Corcyra. 
Prosecution of Timotheus by Callistratus and Iphicrates. Timotbeus is acquitted. 
372. Timotheus goes to Asia. Iphicrates continued in the command of a fleet in the Ionian 

sea. 
371. Congress at Sparta, and general peace (called the peace of Callias), from which the 
Thebans were excluded, because they would not grant the independence of the 
Boeotian towns. 
The Lacedcemonians, commanded by Cleombrotus, invade Bceotia, but are defeated 
by the Tliebans imder Epameinondas at the battle of Leuctra. Commencement oi 
the Theban Supremacy. 
Foundation of Megalopolis. 
370. Expedition of Agesilaus into Arcadia. 

Jason of Phera3 slain. After the interval of a year, Alexander of Pherse succeeds to 

his power in Thessaly. 
First invasion of Peloponnesus by the Thebans. They remain in Peloponnesus four 
months, and found Messene. 
367. Embassy of i'eldpidas to Persia. 

Second invasion of Peloponnesus by the Thebans. 

Expedition of Pelopidas to Thessaly. He is imprisoned by Alexander of Pherae, but 

Epaminondas obtains his release. 
Archidamus gains a victory over the Arcadians. 

Death of the elder Dionysius of Syracuse, after a reign of thirty-eight years. 
366. Third invasion of Peloponnesus by the Thebans. 

The Archidnmvs of Isocrates. 
365. War between Arcadia and Elis. 
364. Second campaign of the war between Arcadia and Elis. Battle of Olympia at the 

time of the games. 
362. Fourth invasion of Peloponnesus by the Thebans. Battle of Mantinea, in June, in 
which Epaminondas is kihed. 
Xenophon brought down his Greek history to the battle of Mantinea. 
B61. A general peace between all the belligerents, with the exception of the Lacedsemo^ 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 651 

c. 

nians, because the latter would not acknowledge the independence of the Hesse- 
nians. 

Agesilaus goes to Egypt to assist Tachos, and dies in the winter, when preparing to re- 
turn home. 

Birth of Deinarchus, the orator. 
860. War between the Athenians and Olynthians for the possession of Amphipolis. 

Timotheus, the Athenian general, repulsed at Amphipolis. 

Book VI.— THE MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. 

359. Accession of Philip, King of Jlacedonia, set. 23. He defeats Argseus, who laid claim to 
the throne, declares Amphipolis a free city, and makes peace with the Athenians 
He then defeats the Pasoiiians and Illjn-ians. 
358. Amphipolis taken by Philip. Expedition of the Athenians into Euboea. 
357. Chios, Rhodes, and Byzantium revolt from Athens. First year of the Social War. 

The Phocians seize Delphi. Comraencemeat of the Sacred War. The Thebans and 
the Locrians are the chief opponents of the Phocians. 

Dion sails from Zacynthus, and lands in Sicily about September. 
356. Second year of the Social War. 

Birth of Alexander, tlie son of Philip and Olympias, at the time of the Olympic games. 

Potidffia taken by Philip, who gives it to Olynthus. 

Dionysius the Younger expelled from Syracuse by Dion, after a reign of twelve years. 
355. Third and last year of the Social War. Peace concluded between Athens and her for 

mer allies. 
354. Trial and condemnation of Timotheiis. 

Demosthenes begins to speak in the assemblies of the people. 
353. Philip seizes upon Pagasse, and begins to besiege Methone. 

Death of Dion. 
852. Philip takes Methone and enters Thessaly. He defeats and slays Onomarchus, the 
Phocian general, expels the tyrants from Pherce, and becomes master of Thessaly. 
He attempts to pass Thermopylae, but is prevented by the Athenians. 

War between Lacedcemon and Megalopolis. 

The first Philippic of Demosthenes. 
349. The Olynthians, attacked by Philip, ask succor from Athens. 

The Olynthiac orations of Demosthenes. 
348. Olynthian war continued. 
847. Olynthus taken and destroyed by Philip. 

Death of Plato, set. 82. Speusippus succeeds Plato. Aristotle, upon the death of 
Plato, went to Atarneus. 
346. Peace between Philip and the Athenians. 

Philip overruns Phocis and brings the Sacred War to an end, after it had lasted ten 
years. All the Phocian cities, except Abae, were destroyed. 

Oration of Demosthenes on the Peace. 
345. Speech of jEschines against Timarchus. 
344. Timoleon sails from Corinth to Syracuse, to expel the tyrant Dionysius. 

Aristotle, after three years' stay at Atarneus, went to Mytilene. 

The second Philippic of Demosthenes. 
343. Timoleon completes the conquest of Syracuse. 

Disputes between Philip and the Athenians. 

The speech of Demosthenes respecting Hulonnesus. 

The speeches of Demosthenes and ^E^chines Ile^jt Tlapanpecr^fias- 
842. Philip's expedition to Thrace. He is opposed by Diopeitlies, the Athenian general «t 
the Chersonesus. 

Aristotle comes to the court of Philip. 

Isocrates, eet. 94, began to compose the Panatheuaic oration. 

Birth of Epicurus. 
841. Philip is still in 1 hrace, where he wintered. 



652 HISTORY OF GREECE. 

B.C. 

341. The oration of Demosthenes on the Chersonesus, and the third and fourth Philippics 

Philip besieges Selj'mbria, Perinthus, and Byzantium. 
S39 Eenewal of the war between Philip and the Athenians. Phocion compels Philip to 
raise the siege both of Byzantium and Perinthus. 

Xenocrates succeeds Speusippus at the Academy. 

333. Philip is chosen general of the Amphictyons, to carry on the war against Amphissa. 

He marches through Thermopylce and seizes Elatea. The Athenians form an alli- 
ance with the Thebans; but their united forces are defeated by Philip at the battle 
of ChiEronea, fought on the 7th of Metageitnion ( August). Philip becomes master of 
Greece. Congress at Corinth, in which war is declared by Greece against Persia, 
and Philip appointed to conduct it. 
Death of Isoerates, set. 98. 

336. Death of Timoleon. 

Murder of Philip, and accession of his son Alexander, get. 20. 

835. Alexander marches against the Thracians, Triballi, and Illyrians. While he is en- 
gaged in this war, Thebes revolts. He forthwith marches southwards, and destroys 
Thebes. 

334. Alexander commences the war against Persia. He crosses the Hellespont in the spi'ing, 

defeats the Persian satraps at the Granicus in May, and conquers the western part 
of Asia Minor. 
Aristotle returns to Athens. 

333. Alexander subdues Lycia in the winter, collects his forces at Gordium in the spring, 
and defeats Darius at Issus late in the autumn. 

332. Alexander takes Tyre, after a siege of seven months, in July. He takes Gaza in 
Septembei', and then marches into Egypt, which submits to him. In the winter he 
visits the oracle of Ammon, and gives orders for the foundation of Alexandria. 

331. Alexander sets out from Memphis in the spring, marches through Phoenicia and Syria, 
crosses the Euphrates at Thapsacus in the middle of the summer, and defeats 
Darius again at Arbela or Gaugamela on the 1st of October. He wintered at Per- 
sepolis. 
In Greece Agis is defeated and slain by Antipater. 

830. Alexander marches into Media, and takes Ecbatana. From thence he sets out in pur- 
suit of Darius, who is slain by Bessus. After the death of Darius Alexander con- 
quers Hyrcania, and marches in pursuit of Bessus through Drangiaua and Arachosia, 
towards Bactria. 
The speech of jEschines against Ctesiphon, and the speech of Demosthenes on the 

Crown. ./Eschines, after his failure, withdrew to Asia. 
Philemon began to exhibit comedy during the reign of Alexander, a little earlier than 
Menander. 

329. Alexander marches across the Paropamisus in the winter, passes the Oxus, takes 
Bessus, and reaches the Jaxartes, where he founds a city, Alexandria Eschat(5. He 
subsequently crosses the Jaxartes and defeats the Scythians. He winters at Bactra. 

328. Alexander is employed during the whole of this campaign in the conquest of 
Sogdiana. 
He marries Eoxana, the daughter of Oxyartes, a Bactrian prince. 

827. After the subjugation of Sogdiana Alexander returns to Bactria, from whence he 
marches to invade India. He crosses the Hydaspes and defeats Porus. He continues 
his march as far at the Hyphasis, but is there compelled by his troops to return to 
the Hydaspes. In the autumn he begins to sail down the Hydaspes and the Indus 
to the ocean, which he reached in July in the following year. 

326. Alexander returns to Persia, with part of his troops, through Gedrosia. He sends 
Nearchus witla the fleet to sail from the mouths of the Indus to the Persian Gulf. 
Nearchus accomplishes the voyage in 129 days. 

325. Alexander reaches Susa at the beginning of the year. Towards the close of it he visits 
Ecbatana, where Hephaistion dies. Harpalus comes to Athens, and bribes many ol 
the Greek orators. 

324. Alexander reaches Babylon in the spring. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 653 

B.C. 

324. Demosthenes, accused of having received a bribe from Harpalus, is condemned to pay 

a tine of fifty talents. He withdraws to Troezen and jEgina. 
823. Death of Alexander at Babylon, in June, after a reign of twelve years and eight 
months. 
Division of the satrapies among Alexander's generals. 

The Greek states make war against Macedonia, usually called the Lamian war. Leos- 
thenes, the Athenian general, defeats Antipater, and besieges Lamia, in which An- 
tipater had taken refuge. Death of Leosthenes. 
Demosthenes returns to Athens. 
322. Leonnatus comes to the assistance of Antipater, but is defeated and slain. Craterus 
comes to the assistance of Antipater. Defeat of the confederates at the battle of 
Crannon on the 7th of August. End of the Lamian war. Muuychia^ccupied by 
the Macedonians. 
Death of Demosthenes on the 14th of October. 

Death of Aristotle, set. 63, at Chalcis, whither he had withdrawn from Athens a few 
months before. 
321. Perdiccas invades Egypt, where he is slain by his own troops. Partition of the 
provinces at Triparadisus. 
Menander, ait. 20, exhibits his first comedy. 
818. Death of Antipater, after appointing Polysperchon regent, and his son Cassander 

chiliarch. 
317. War between Cassander and Polysperchon in Greece. The Athenians put Phocion 
to death. Athens is conquered by Cassander, who places it under the government 
of Demetrius Phalereus. 
317. Death of Philip Arrhldosus and Eurj^dice. 

Olympias returns to Macedonia, and is besieged by Cassander at Pydna. 
S16. Antigonus becomes master of Asia. Cassander takes Pydna, and puts Olympias to 

death. He rebuilds Thebes. 
315. Coalition of Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus against Antigonus. First 
year of the war. 
Polemon succeeds Xenocrates at the Academy. 
114. Second year of the war against Antigonus. 

Death of the orator jEschines, set. 75. 
313. Third year of the war against Antigonus. 
312. Fourth year of the war against Antigonus. 

311. General peace. Murder of Roxana and Alexander IV. by Cassander. 
310. Ptolemy appears as liberator of the Greeks. Renewal of hostilities between him and 

Antigonus. 
308. Ptolemy's expedition to Greece. 
307. Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, becomes master of Athens. Demetrius Phalereus 

leaves the city. 
306. Demetrius recalled from Athens. He defeats Ptolemy in a great sea-fight off Salamis 
in Cyprus. After that battle Antigonus assumes the title of king, and his example 
is followed by Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Cassander. 
Epicurus settles at Athens, where he teaches about thirty-six years. 
305. Rhodes besieged by Demetrius. 

304. Demetrius makes peace with the Rhodians, and returns to Athens. 
303. Demetrius carries on the war in Greece with success against Cassander. 
302. War continued in Greece between Demetrius and Cassander. 
301. Demetrius crosses over to Asia. 

Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, about the month of August, in which Lysimachus 
and Seleucus defeat Antigonus and Demetrius. Antigonus, Kt. 81, falls in th« 
battle. 
297. Demetrius returns to Greece, and makes an attempt upon Athens, but is repulsed. 

Death of Cassander and accession of his son Philip IV. 
295. Death of Philip IV. and accession of his brother Antipater. 
Demetrius takes Athens. 



654 HISTOKY OF GREECE. 

B. C. 

295. Civil war in Macedonia between the two brotliers, Antipater and Alexander. 

Demetrius becomes king of Macedonia. 
291. Death of Menander, ajt. 52. 
290. Demetrius takes Thebes a second time. He celebrates the Pythian games at 

Athens. 
287. Coiililion against Demetrius. He is driven out of Macedonia, and his dominions di- 
vided between Lysimachus and Pyrrhiis. 
Demetrius sails to Asia. 

Pyrrhus driven out of Macedonia by Lysimachus, after seven months' possession. 
286. Demetrius surrenders himself to Seleucus, who keeps him in captivity. 
285. Ptolemy H. Philadelphus is associated in the kingdom by his father. 
283. Demetrius, set. 54, dies in captivity at Apamea in. Syria. 

-Death of Ptolemy Soter, set. 84. 
281. Lysimachus is defeated and slain by Seleucus, at the battle of Corupedion. 
280. Seleucus murdered by Ptolemy Ceraunus seven months after the death of Lysimachus. 
Antioclius L, the son of Seleucus, becomes king of Asia, Ptolemy Ceraunus king of 

Thrace and JIacedonia. 
L-rnption of the Gauls and death of Ptolemy Ceraunus. 
Rise of the Achsean leagiie. 
279. The Gauls under Brennus invade Greece, but Brennus and a gi-eat part of his army are 

destroyed at Delphi. 
278. Antigonus Gonatas becomes king of Macedonia. 
273. Pyrrhus invades Macedonia, and expels Antigonus Gonatas. 
272. Pyrrhus invades Peloponnesus, and perishes in an attack on Argos. Antigonus regains 

Macedonia. 
262. Death of Philemon, the comic poet, set. 97. 
251. Aratus delivers Sicyon, and unites it to the Achrean League. 
243. Aratus, a second time general of the Achtean League, delivers Corinth from the Mace 

donians. 
241. Agis IV., king of Sparta, put to death in consequence of his attempts to reform the 

state. 
239. Death of Antigonus, and accession of his son, Demetrius II. 
236. Clcomenes III. becomes king of Sparta. 
229. Death of Demetrius II., and accession of Antigonus Doson, who was left by Demetrius 

guardian of his son Philip. 
227. Cleomenes conmiences war against the Achrean League. 
226. Cleomenes carries on the war with success against Aratus, who is again the general 

of the Achsean League. 
225. Reforms of Cleomenes at Sparta. 

224. The Achseans call in the assistance of Antigonus Doson against Cleomenes. 
221. Antigonus defeats Cleomenes at Sellasia, and obtains possession of Sparta. Cleomenes 

sails to Egypt, where he dies. Extinction of the royal line of the Heracleidse at Sparta. 
220. Death of Antigonus Doson, and accession of Philip V., get. 17. 

The Achfeans and Aratus are defeated by the jEtolians. The Aehffians apply for assist- 
ance to Philip, who espouses their cause. Commencement of the Social War. 
217. Third and last year of the Social War. Peace concluded. 
216. Philip concludes a treaty with Hannibal. 
213. Philip removes Aratus by poison. 

311. Treaty between Rome and the iEtolians against Philip. 
208. Philip marches into Peloponnesus to assist the Achaeans. 

Philopcemen is elected general of the Achsean League, and effects important reforms in 

the army. 
207. Philopcemen defeats and slays Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedsemon, at the battle ol 

Mantinea. 
205. The .^iltolians make peace with Philip. Philip's treaty with Rome. 
200. War between Philip and Rome. 
197. Philip defeated at the battle of Cynoscephalse. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



655 



B. C. 

196. 
192. 



191. 

189. 
188. 

183. 

179. 
171. 

168. 

167. 

151. 

147. 



Greece declared free by Flamininus at the Isthmian games. 

Lacedxmon is added by Philopcemea to the Achseaii League. 

Antiochus comes into Greece to assist the jEtolians against the Romans. He winters 

at Chalcis. 
Antiocluis and the iEtoliaiis defeated by the Romans at the battle of Thermopylae. 
The Romans besiege Ambracia, and grant peace to the jEtoliaus. 
Philopoemen, again general of tlie AchiBan League, subjugates Sparta, and abrogates 

the laws of Lycurgus. 
The Messenians revolt from the Achtean League. They capture and put to death 

Philopoemen. 
Death of Philip and accession of Perseus. 
War between Perseus and Rome. 
Defeat and capture of Perseus b}' jEmilius Paulus. 
Divisions of Macedonia. 
One tliousand of the principal Achteans are sent to Rome. Polybius is among the 

Achsean exiles. 
Embassy of the thi'ee philosophers to Rome. Return of the Achaaan exiles. 
War between Rome and the Acliieaus. 
Destruction of Corinth by Mumniius. Greece becomes a Roman province. 




Colonial Coin of Corinth. On the obverse, the head of Antoninus Pius ; on the reverse, 
the port of Cenchrese. The letters C. L. I. Cor. stand for Colonia Laus Julia Coriathus, 
the name given to the city when Julius Caesar founded a colony there in b. c. 46. 



Book VIL- GREECE FROM THE ROMAN CONQUEST TO THE PRESENT TIME, 

B. C. 

87. Sylla lays siege to Athens. 

A. D. 

117-138. Hadrian embellishes Athens. 

267. The Goths appear in Greece. 

.S30. Constantinople built. 

361. The Emperor Julian ascends the throne. 

364. Division between the li^astern and Western Empires. 

447. Walls of Constantinople rebuilt. 

476. Western Empire terminates, at the close of the reign of Romulus Augustulus. 

527. Justinian's reign commences. 

717. Accession of Leo the Isaurian. 

746. The pestilence depopulates the East. 
1081. Robert Guiscard passes from Brindisi to Corfou. 
1146. Invasion of Greece by Roger of Sicily. 

1203. Fourth Crusade. 

1204. Constantinople taken by the Crusaders. 

1205. The Dukedom of Athens established. 
1360. Adrianople taken by the Turks. 



666 HISTORY OP GREECE. 

L.T>. 

1452. The Emperor Constantine unites himself to the Catholic Church. 

1453. Ottoman army leaves Adrianople. Constantinople besieged and taken in May. 
1458. The Sultan makes a campaign in the Peloponnesus. 

1460. Conquest of Gi-eece completed. 

1461. Conquest of Trebizond by the Turks. 

1478. Armistice between the Venetians and the Turks. 

1670. Crete conquered from the Turks by the Venetians. 

1680. Conquests of Morosini. 

1687. Athens taken by the Venetians, under Morosini. 

1699. Peace of Carlowitz. 

1715. The Peloponnesus invaded by Aclimet III. 

1718. Peace of Passarowitz. 

1768. War between Turkey and Russia. 

1769. The Russian fleet, under Orloff, appears on the coast of the Peloponnesus. 
1787. War renewed between Russia and Turkey. 

1792. Peace concluded between Russia and Turkey. 
1803. The Souliotes make terms with Ah Pacha. 

1821. The insurrection breaks out in Greece. Prince Ypselantes raises the standard of ro* 

volt in Moldavia, and is defeated at Dragaschan. Bloody scenes at Constantinople! 
Tripolitza taken. 

1822. National Assembly at Epidaurus. Proclamation of Independence. First National 

Constitution. Massacre of Scio. 

1823. National Assembly at Astros. Death of Marcos Botzares. Loan negotiated by Lou* 

riottes. Lord Byron sails for Greece. 

1824. Lord Byron arrives at Mesolongi. His last illness and death. 

1825. Ibrahim Pacha arrives in Greece. Mesolongi besieged and taken. 

1826. Athens taken. Karaiskakes killed. 

1827. National Assembly at Trrezene. Capo DTstrias chosen President. Treaty of London, 

6th of July. Battle of Navarino. 

1828. Arrival in Greece of President Capo DTstrias. Departure of Ibrahim Pacl>a. 

1829. Protocol of March 22. Peace between Russia and Turkey. Cessation of hostilities 

between the Greeks and the Turks. 

1830. Independence of Greece decided on by England, France, and Russia. Leopold selectr 

ed as Sovereign Prince. He abdicates. 

1831. Assassination of the President, and subsequent disturbances. 

1832. Prince Otho of Bavaria is selected as King of Greece. He is formally proclaimed by 

the Assembly at Pronoca. The territory of Greece includes Acarnania, jEtolia, 
Phocis, Locris, Bceotia, Attica, Peloponnesus, Eubcea, with the adjacent islands and 
the Cyclades. 

1833. The King arrives in Greece, with a Regencj^ and a Bavarian army. 

1835. The Government is transferred from Nauplia to Athens. 

1836. Marriage of King Otho and the Princess Amelia of Oldenburg. The University of 

Athens organized. 

1843. Pohtical revolution. Constitutional Assembly. Formation of the Constitution. 

1844. The Constitution accepted by the King, and a Constitutional Monarchy finally es- 

tablished in Greece. 




.Horologmm of Andronicns Cyrrhestes at Athens. (See p. 644.) 



INDEX. 



Abdera, 148. 
Abrocomas, 397. 
Abydos, battle of, 336. 
Academy, the, 873^ 555. 
Acarnania, 5. 
Acciuoli, house of, 580. 
Achffians, 11 seq. 
Achasan League, 529 seq. 
Acha3us, 11. 
Achaia, 6, 55. 

, a Roman province, 638. 

Acharnse, 267. 

Achelous, 4, 9. 

Achilles, 21. 

Achmet III., 599. 

Achradina, 322. 

Acrisius, 17. 

Acropolis, Athenian, 367, 892. 

Acusilaus of Argos, 219. 

Adeimantus, 183. 

Admetus, 232. 

Adrastus, 20. 

Adrianus, 565. 

iEetes, 19. 



Jlgaleos, Mt., Xerxes at, 194. 

iEgean Sea, 2. 

^geus, 17. 

iEgina, 7 ; described, 168 ; taken by flM 
Athenians, 268. 

^ginetan scale, 57 ; sculpture, 140. 

^ginetans submit to the Persians, 172. 

iEgospotami, battle of, 344. 

j;rn>tus, 14. 

.^olians, 11. 

^olic migration, 84. 

^olus, 11. 

iEschines, 477; Amphictyonio deputy, 484; 
accuses Demosthenes, 515 ; retires to 
Ehodes, 516 ; account of his life, 550. 

iEschylus, 166; account of, 378 seq. 

.^symnetes, 8. 

^thra, 17. 

iEtolia, 5. 

iEtolian League, 531. 

^tolians reduced, 534. 

Agamemnon, 14, 21. 

Agathon, 546. 

Ageladas, 362. 

Agesilaus becomes king of Sparta, 409 ; 
character, ib.; his expedition against the 
Persians, 412; attacks Pharnabazus, tft.j 



83 



658 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



routs the Persians on the Pactolus, 413; 
his interview with Pharnabazus, 414; re- 
called, ib.; homeward march, 417; offer- 
ing at Delphi, 418; takes Lechasum, 421; 
invades Boeotia, 434; attaclis Mantinea, 
444 ; saves Sparta, 445, 453 ; expedition to 
Egypt, 454 ; death, ib. 

^ Agesipolis, 417 ; death, 429. 

Agis, 288, 305, 408. 

IV., 530. . 

Agnon, 252. 

Agora, 25. 

, Athenian, 373. 

Agrigentum, 112, 456. 

Agyrrhius, 423. 

Aimnestus, 210. 

Ajax, 21. 

Alaric, 370. 

Albanians, 608. 

AlcEeus, 124. 

Alcibiades, character of, 302; deceives the 
Spartan ambassadors, 303; at Olympia, 
S04; attacks Epidaurus, «&. ; in Sicily, 308; 
accused of mutilating the Hermse, 310; 
arrest and escape of, 313; condemned, 
314 ; goes to Sparta, ib. ; excites a revolt of 
the Chians, 326; dismissed by the Spar- 
tans, 327; flies to Tissaphernes, 327; in- 
trigues of, 328; proceedings at Samos, 331; 
arrested by Tissaphernes, 336 ; defeats the 
Peloponnesians at Cyzicus, ib. ; returns to 
Athens, 337; dismissed from the command 
of the Athenian fleet, 340; flies to Phar- 
nabazus, 351 ; murdered, ib. 

Alcidas, 280, 285. 

Alcmseon, 84. 

Alcmseonidse banished, 89. 

Alcman, 123. 

Alcmena, 17. 

Alcuin, 594. 

Aleuadfe, 473. 

Alexander, King of Macedon, 204. 

Alexander of Pher», 449; defeated by Pe- 
lopidas, 451 ; subdued, ib. 

Alexander the Great, 487; education, 490; 
accession, 491 ; overawes the Thebans and 
Athenians, 492 ; generalissimo against Per- 
sia, i6.; interview with Diogenes, z6. ; ex- 
pedition against the Thracians, &c., ib.; 
reduces the Thebans to obedience, 493; 
demands the Athenian orators, ib. ; crosses 
to Asia, 495; forces the passage of the 
Granicus, ib.; progress through Asia Mi- 
nor, 496; cuts the Gordian knot, ib.; dan- 
gerous illness, 497 ; defeats the Persians at 
Issus, 498; march through Phoenicia, 499; 
besieges Tyre, 500; answer to Parmenio, 
ih. ; proceeds to Egj'pt, 501 ; visits the tem- 
ple of Ammoii, ib. ; defeats Darius in the 
battle of Arbeln, 502; enters Babylon, 503; 
seizes Susa, ib. ; marches to Persepolis, ib. ; 
pursues Darius, 504 ; invades Hyrcania, 
505; enters Bactria, 506; defeats the Scy- 
thians, 507 ; marries Roxana, ib. ; kills C'li- 
tus, ib. ; plot of the pages against his life, 
ib.; crosses the Indus, 508; vanquishes 
Porus, ib. ; marches homewards, 509 ; peril 
at Malli, ib. ; arrives at the Indian Ocean, 
510; march through Gedrosia, ib.; marries 
Statira, 25. ; quells a mutiny at Opis, 511; 
solemnizes the festival of Dionysus at Ec- 
batana, ib.; his ambitious projects, 512; j 



death, ib. ; character, ib. ; estimate of his 
exploits, 513; funeral, 515; portraits and 
statues of, 542. 

Alexander, son of Alexander the Great, 515, 
522. 

Alexandria in Arachosia, 506. 

Alexandria Ariorum, 505. 

Alexandria ad Caucasum, 506. 

Alexandria in Egypt, founded, 501; descrip- 
tion of, 543 ; literature at, 557. 

Alexandria Eschate, 506. 

Alexis Comnenos, 589. 

Alexius IV., 578. 

Ali Pacha, 600. 

Alphabet, Ionic, introduced, 354. 

Alpheus, 6, 7. 

Altis, the, 50. 

Ambracian Gulfj 4. 

Ameinias, 196. 

Amelia, Princess, 630. 

Ammon, Zeus, 501. 

Amompharetus, 209. 

Amphipolis, 252, 470. 

Amphissians, 484. 

Amphitryon, 15. 

Amphictyonic Council, its origin and consti- 
tution, 47. 

Amphictyons, decree of the, at the end of 
the second sacred war, 479. 

Amurath I., 581. 

Amyntas, 428. 

Anacharsis, 81. 

Anacreon, 126. 

Anactorium, 117. 

Anaxagoras, 128; chargea witn impiety, 261. 

Anaxibius, 405; slain, 424. 

Anaxicrates, 245. 

Anaximander, 128. 

Anaximeiies, 128. 

Andocides, 313, 549. 

Androsthenes, 362. 

Androutsos, 608. _ 

Anna Comnena, 589. 

Anniceris, 457. 

Antalcidas, Peace of, 425 ; mission to Persia, 
422. 

Antigonias, Athenian tribe, 523. 

Antigonus, 515, 519; coalition against, 522; 
assumes the title of king, 523; slain, 524. 

Antigonus Doson, 531. 

Antigonus Gonatas, 528, 

Antioch, founded by Seleucus, 524. 

Antiochns, 339, 448. 

Antiochus Soter, 528. 

Antiochus EL, 534. 

Antipater, defeats the Spartans, 515; defeat- 
ed at the Spercheus, 517 ; overthrows the 
allied Greeks at Crannon, 518; demands 
the Athenian orators, ib. ; declared regent, 
520 ; death, ib. 

Antiphon, 329, 332; executed, 333; charac- 
ter as an orator, 549. 

Antisthenes, 554. 

Antoninus, 564. 

Anytus, 391. 

Apaturia, festival of, 342. 

Apelles, 542. 

Apollo Pythssus, 56; Temnites, 315; Epicu- 
rius, temple of, 373. 

Apollodorus, 364. 

Apollonia, 117. 

ApoUonius Ehodius, 566. 



INDEX. 



659 



Appian, 559. 

Avachosia, 506. 

Aratus, 529. 

Arbela, battle of, 502. 

Arcadia, 6, 55. 

Arcadian confederation, 443. 

Arcadians transfer the presidency of the 
Olympic games to the Pisatans, 452. 

Arcesilaus, 554. 

Archelaus, 468. 

Archias, 431, 519. 

Archidamus, 260, 265, 266, 268, 269- be- 
sieges Platjea, 274. 

Archiiochus, 121. 

Architecture, 133, 543. 

Archon, 77; Athenian, 84; eponymus and 
basileus, 86. 

Areopagus, court of, 87; reformed by Peri- 
cles, 239; hill of, 357, 372. 

Arginusse, battle of, 341. 

Argives and Spartans, struggles between, 74. 

Argo, ship, 19. 

Argolis, 6. 

Argonauts, 19. 

Argos, 7, 13, 14, 55; progress of, 241; head 
of a new confederacy, 301. 

Argyropoulos, 635. 

Ariadne, 18. 

Ariseus, 399. 

Ariobarzanes, 504. 

Arion, 123, 377. 

Aristagoras, 154 seq. 

Aristarchus, 558. 

Aristeides, character of, 171 ; recalled' from 
exile, 189; defeats the Persians, 196; or- 
ganizes the confederacy of Delos, 226; 
change in his views, 230 ; death, 234. 

Aristion, 562. 

Aristippus, 554. 

Aristocrates, 72. 

Aristodemus of Messenia, 71. 

Aristodemus of Sparta, 212. 

Aristogeiton. See Harmodius. 

Aristophanes, his politics, 282; account of, 
382 seq. 

Aristophanes of Byzantium, 558. 

Aristomenes of Messenia, 71. 

Aristotle, 491; account of, 555; method and 
philosophy, 556. 

Armatoloi, 603. 

Arrian, 559. 

Arsinoij, 527. 

Art, Greek, 28, 132 seq.; Athenian, 356 seq.; 
Greek, 539 seq ; decline of, 544. 

Artabazus, retreat of, 211. 

Artaphernes, 154, 161. 

Artaxerxes, 233, 394. 

Artemisia, 191; her prowess, 196. 

Artemisium, battle of, 184. 

Asia Minor, Greek colonies in, 33. 

Asopios, Professor, 635. 

Asopius, 280. 

Aspasia, 261. 

Assyrian empire, 143. 

AStacus, 268. 

Astros, Assembly at, 614. 

Asty, the, 359. 

Astyochus, 326. 

Atlieas, 486. 

Athena, 18; statue of, 370. 

Athenian, navy, 280. 

Athenians, divided into four classes, 92 ; as- 



sist the lonians, 156; war with iEgina, 
168; abandon Athens, 188; reject the Per- 
sian alliance, 204; constitution more dem- 
ocratic, 230; form an alliance with Argos 
241; assist Inarus, i6. ; defeat the yEgine- 
tans, 242; conquer Boeotia, 244; reduce 
jErjina, ib.; lose their power in Boeotia, 
246; despotic power of, 253; make peace 
with Persia, 245; conclude a thirty years' 
truce with Sparta. 247; subjugate Samos 
253; form an alliance with' Corcyra, 256; 
their allies ami resources in the Pelopon- 
nesian war, 265; their fleet annoys the 
Peloponnesus, 268; ravage the Megarid, 
ib.; their decree against the Mytileneans, 
282; take Pylus, 288; expedition against 
Boeotia, 295; conclude a truce with Spar- 
ta, 298; peace of Nicias, 299; refuse to 
evacuate Pylus, 302; treaty with Argos, 
304 ; conquer Melos, .307 ; massacre the in- 
habitants, ^6.; interfere in Sicilian affairs, 
ib.; expedition to Sicily, 308; progress of, 
312; insult the coasts of Laconia, 318; 
send a fresh fleet to Sicily, 319; defeated 
at sea by the Syracusans, 320; retreat 
from Syracuse, 321; defeated by the Lace- 
dseraonians off Eretria, 333; gain a naval 
victory at Cynossema, 335; at Abydos, 
336; at Oyzicus, ib.; regain possession of 
the Bosporus, 337 ; totally defeated at 
J^gospotami, 344; ally themselves with 
Thebes, 416; form a league with Corinth 
and Argos against Sparta, 417 ; lose the 
command of the Hellespont, 425; head of 
a new confederacy, 433; declare war 
against Sparta, ib. ; peace with Sparta, 
437; form an alliance with the Pelopon- 
nesian States, 443 ; send an embassy to 
Persia, 448; support Alexander of Pherae, 
449; their desire to seize Corinth, 450; re- 
viving maritime power of, ib.; deceived 
by Philip, 470; coalition against, 471; 
send an embassy to him, 477 ; court Phil- 
ip, 478 ; send a fleet to relieve Byzantium, 
483; their alarm at the approach of Philip, 
484; prostrated by the battle of Chceronea, 
486; their piratical expedition to Oropus, 
536 ; condemned in 500 talents by the Ro- 
mans, 537. 

Athens, its origin, 14. 18; early constitution 
of, 86; taken by the Persians, 190; second 
occupation of, by the Persians, 205; re- 
building of, 228; long walls of, 242; incipi- 
ent decline of, 246; crowded state of, dup- 
ing the Peloponnesian war, 267; plague at, 
269; dismay at, 325; oligarchy established 
at, 330; invested by the Pelopounesians 
346; famine at, 347; surrender of, ib., 
Spartan garrison at, 349; democracy re- 
stored at, 354; description of the city, 357 
seq.; origin of its name, 358; rebuilt, J6. ; 
walls, ib.; harbors, 359; streets, &c., 360; 
population, 361; long walls rebuilt, 419; 
captured by Demetrius, 526; siege of, dur- 
ing the Revolution, 625. 

Atlios, Mount, canal at, 174. 

Attaginus, 212. 

Attic tribes, four, 85; increasea to ten, 
102. 

Attica, 5; early history of, 83; three factions 
in, 90. 

Attila, 574. 



660 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



B. 



Babylon, 144; taken by Cyrus, 148 ; submits 
to Alexander, 503. 

Babylonians, the, 144 ; Aristophanes's come- 
dy of, 282. 

Bacchiadse, oligarchy of the, 383. 

Bacchylides, 219. 

Bacon, Eoger, 595. 

Bad, the, 82. 

Barbanan, meanmg of the term, 46. 

Barca, 117. 

Bards, ancient, 28. 

Bardyhs, 469. 

Barlaam, 595. 

Basileus, what, 25. . 

Basing, 595. 

Bede, 594. 

Belus, temple of, 503. 

Bessarion, 596. 

Bessus, 505; put to death, 506. 

Bias, 128. 

Bion, 558. 

Boar's grave, battle at the, 72. 

Boccaccio, 595. 

Boeotarchs, restored, 432. 

BcEOtia, description of, 5. 

Boeotians, immigration of the, 31 ; their con- 
federacy restored, 436. 

Boges, 227. 

Boniface, 579. 

Bosporus, Athenian toll at the, 337. 

Botzares, Marcos, 614. 

Boule, 25. 

Brasidas, 289; his expedition into Thrace, 
296; death, 299; honors paid to his mem- 
ory, ib. 

Brennus, 528. 

Bribery among the Greeks, 185. 

Bryas, 306. 

Bucephala, founded by Alexander, 508. 

Buchon, 637. 

Byron, Lord, 616 seq. 

Byzantine Historians, 588 seq. 

Byzantines, erect a statue in honer of Ath- 
ens, 483. 

Byzantium, 118; taken by the Athenians, 
225; second capture of, 254; third capture 
of, 387 ; besieged by Phihp, 482 ; relieved 
by the Athenians, 483 ; sketch of, 570. 



Cadmea, or Theban citadel, 14; seized by 
the Spartans, 429 ; recovered, 432. 

Cadmus, 14. 

Cadmus of Miletus, 219. 

Calamis, 362. 

Gallias, peace of, 438. 

Callias of Chalcis, 482. 

Callicrates, 536. 

Callicratidas, 340. 

Callimachus, 558, 566. 

Callippus, 461. 

Calirrhoe, fountain of, 99. 

Callistratus, 433. 

Callixenus, 342. 

Gambunian Mountains, 2. 

Cambyses, 149 ; conquers Egypt, ib. ; death, 

ib. 
Canachus, 362. 



Canares, 614. 

Gandia (Crete), 598. 

Capo D'Istrias, Augustine, 629. 

Capo D'Istrias, John, 624, 628. 

Capsales, 622. 

Caracalla, 565. 

Carduchi, 402. 

Carlowitz, Peace of, 599. 

Carneades, 555. 

Caryatides, 371. 

Carthaginians invade Sicily, 201, 456. 

Caspian gates, 505. 

Cassander, 520; establishes an oligarchy at 
Athens, 521 ; takes Pydna, ib. ; kiUs Kox- 
ana and her son, 522. 

Casting, art of, 139. 

Catana, surprised by the Athenians, 313. 

Cathasi, 509. 

Catherine II., 607. 

Caucones, 13. 

Cecropia, 14. 

Cecropidse, 358. 

Cecrops, 14. 

Celts invade Macedonia, 528. 

Cephallenia, 7, 268. 

Cephissus, the, 357. 

Cerameicus, the, 373. 

Ceryces, the, 328. 

Chabrias, 422, 433; defeats the LacedsemO" 
nian fleet at Naxos, 435 ; slain, 471. 

Gh£ereas, 331. 

ChEBrephon, 390. 

Chasrilns, 377. 

Chseronea, first battle of, 246 ; second battle, 
485. 

Chalcedon, 337. 

Chalcocondylas of Athens, 597. 

Chalvbes, the, 403. 

Chares, 450, 471, 483. 

Chares (sculptor), 545. 

Charicles, 318. 

Charidemus, 475. 

Charilaus, 58, 74. 

Chariots of war, 29. 

Charon of Lampsacus, 220. 

Charon of Thebes, 431. 

Cheirisophus, 404. 

Chians, revolt of the, 326. 

Chileos, 205. 

Chilo, 127. 

Chionides, 382. 

Chios, attacked by the Athenians, 471. 

Chremonidean war, 529. 

Ghristopoulos, 638. 

Chronology, Grecian, 36. 

Chryselephantine statuary, 369. 

Chrysoloras, Emanuel, 595. 

Gilicians, 562, 563. 

Gimon of Cleonaa, 141. 

Cimon, son of Miltiades, 227 ; his character, 
235; assists the Lacedaemonians, 238; ban- 
ished, 240 ; his sentence revoked, 244 ; ex- 
pedition to Cyprus and death, 245; hia 
patronage of art, 366. 

Cinadon, conspiracy of, 409. 

Cirrhsean plain, 48, 472. 

Githseron, Mount, 4. 

Cities, independent sovereignty of, 52. 

Clearchus, 394, 398. 

Glearidas, 302. 

Cleippides, 279. 

Cleisthenes of Sicyon, 79. 



INDEX. 



661 



Cleisthenes, 101 ; his reforms, 102 ; their ef- 
fect, 107. 

Cleitus, saves Alexander's life, 495 ; killed by 
Alexander, 507. 

Cleobulus, 127. 

Cleombrotus, 432; assists the Phocians, 436 ; 
invades Boeotia, 440; slain, 441. 

Cleomenes, 101, 105 seq., 169. 

Cleomenic war, 531. 

Cleon, 267; character of, 282; his violence, 
290; his expedition against Sphacteria, 
291; to Thrace, 298; flight and death, 299. 

Cleopatra, Philip's wife, 487. 

Cleopatra, Philip's daughter, marries Alex- 
ander of Epeirus, 488. 

Cleophon, 337. 

Cleruchi, 107, 251. 

Cnemus, 273. 

Cnidos, battle of, 414. 

Cochrane, Lord, 624. 

Codrington, Sir Edward, 627. 

Codrus, death of, 84. 

Colchians, the, 403. 

Colocotrones, 608. 

Colonies, Greek, 108 seq.; relation to the 
mother country, ib.; how founded, 109; 
mostly democratic, 110 ; in Asia Minor, ib. ; 
in Sicily, 111; in Italy, 113; in Gaul and 
Spain, 116; in Africa, ib.; in the Ionian 
Sea, lb.; in Macedonia and Thrace, 117; 
progress of, 251. 

Comedy, old Attic, 382; new, 547. 

Conon, supersedes Alcibiades, 340; defeated 
by Callicratidas, ib. ; accepts the command 
of the Persian fleet, 411 ; occupies Caunus, 
413; proceeds to Babylon, 414; defeats 
the Spartan fleet at Cnidos, ib.; reduces 
the Spartan colonies, 419; takes Cythera, 
ib. ; rebuilds the long waUs of Athens, ib. ; 
seized by Tiribazus, 423. 

Conquest of Constantinople, 582. 

Constantine, 569. 

Constantinople, 570. 

Constitution of 1822, 612 seq. 

Constitution of 1843, 633, 634. 

Contablacos, 597. 

Copais, Lake, 5. 

Coraes, 606. 

Corax, 4. 

Corcyra, 7, 117; troubles in, 284; massacre 
at, 293 ; defended by an Athenian fleet, 436. 

Corcyrifians, quarrel with Corinth, 255; send 
an embassy to Athens, 256. 

Corinna, 217. 

Corinth, 55; despots of, 80; battle of, 417; 
massacre at, 420; congress at, 487; an- 
other congress at, 492 ; destroyed by Mum- 
mius, 538. 

Corinthian Gulf, 5. 

Corintliian order, 137. 

Corinthian war, 417. 
^ Corinthians assist the Epidamnians, 255 ; ally 
themselves with Argos, 420; conclude a 
peace with Thebes, 450. 

Ooronea, battle of, 418. 

Corupedion, battle of, 527. 

Cottyus, 484. 

Cotys, 535. 

Cranai, 358. 

Crannon, battle of, 518. 

Crantor, 554. 

Craterus, 509. 



Crates, 554. 

Cratinus, 382. 

Crete, 7, 36. Candia, 598. 

Creusis, 440. 

Crimesus, battle of, 464. 

Crissa, 48. 

Critias, 348; seizes Salamis and Eleusis, 353; 
slain, ib. 

Crito, 391. 

Critolaus, 537. 

Croesus, 145 ; fall of, 147. 

Croton, 113. 

Crusades, 578. 

Cryptia, 61. 

Cumse, 111. 

Cunaxa, battle of, 398. 

Cyclades, 7. 

Cyclic poets, 39. 

Cyclopean walls, 134. 

Cyllene, Mount, 6. 

Cylon, conspiracy of, 88. 

Cynics, the, 554. 

Cynosarges, the, 554. 

Cynoscephala3, jjattle of, 451. 

Cynuria, 74. 

Cypselus, 80. 

Cyrenaio sect, 554. 

Cyrene, 117. 

Cyrus, empire of, 146; captures Sardis, li7i 
takes Babylon, 148 ; death, 149. 

Cyrus the younger, arrives on the coast, 338; 
his expedition against his brother Art»- 
xerxes, 394; march, 396 seq.; slain, 399. 

Cythera, 7. 

Cyzicus, 111, 336; recovered by the Atheni- 
ans, ib. 

D. 

Dsedalus, 139. 

Damocles, story of, 457. 

Danae, 17. 

Danai, 14. 

Danaus, 14, 17. 

Dandolo, 578. 

Darius, 149; his administration, 150; Thra- 

cian expedition of, 151; extorts the sub- 
mission of the Macedonians, 152; death, 

172. 
Darius Codomanus, defeated by Alexander 

at Issus, 497 ; overthrown by Alexander at 

Arbela, 502; murdered, 505. 
Datis, 161. 

Decarchies, Spartan, 346, 410. 
Decelea, 318. 
Deianira, 17. 
Delfino, 599. 
Delium, Athenian expedition against, 295; 

battle of, 296. 
Delos, confederacy of, 227; tribute, 252; 

synod removed to Athens, 253 ; lustration 

of, 287. 
Delphi, temple of, 48 ; oracle, 51 ; taken by 

the Phocians, 472; oracle of, concerning 

Philip, 488. 
Demades, 518. 
Demaratus, 169. 
Demes, Attic, 102. 
Demetrias, Athenian tribe, 523. 
Demetrius of Phalerus, 521 ; character o^ 

523; I'etires to Thebes, ib. 
Demetrius Poliorcetes, 522 ; besieges Salami% 



662 



HISTORY OF GREEECE. 



523; besiecres Rhodes, ib ; takes Athens, 
525; king of Macedon, 526; death, 527. 

Demetrius of Pharos, 532. 

Demiurgi, 18. 

Democracy, 77 ; Athenian, progi-ess of, 281. 

Demosthenes (general), 288, 291; death, 322. 

Demosthenes (orator), account of, 474; Phi- 
lippks, ib.: first, ?6. ; Olynthincs. 476; em- 
bassy, 477; second Philippic, 481; oration 
on the Ptace, ib. : mission into Pelopon- 
nesus, ib.\ third Philippic, 482; oration 07i 
the Chersonese, ib. ; presented with a golden 
crown, ib.; goes envoy to Thebes, 485; 
fights at Chasroiiea, i6. ; his conduct al'ter 
Philip's death, 491 ; proposes religious hon- 
ors for Philip's assassin, ib.; his opinion of 
Alexander, ib. ; exertions to rouse Greece, 
ib. ; embassy to Alexander, 492 ; accused 
by yEschines, 515 ; speech on the Crown, 516 ; 
condemned of eorrviption, ib. ; recalled from 
sxile, 518; demanded by Antipater, 518; 
escapes to Calaurea, 519; death, ib.; char- 
acter as an orator, 551. 

Dercyllidas, 411, 419. 

Deucalion, 11. 

Dexippus, 565. 

Diacria, 90. 

Diajus, 537. 

Diakos, 611. 

Diasia, 88. 

Diciu«teries, 240. 

Dinarchus, 551. 

Diodes, 455. 

Diodorus Siculus, 559. 

Diodotus, 283. 

Diogenes, his interview with Alexander, 492. 

Dion, 457; patriotic projects of, 458; exiled, 
459; takes Syracuse, 460; assassinated, 
461. 

Dion Cassius, 559. 

Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Syracuse, 456 
seq.; deatli and character, 457. 

Dionysius the younger, 458 ; expelled by 
Dion, 460; retires to Corinth, 462. 

Dionysius of Halicaniassus, 558. 

Dionvsus, theatre of, at Athens, 371. 

Diopeithes, 481. 

Dithyramb, invention of the, 124; the source 
of tragedy, 377. 

Dodoua, oracle of, 13. 

Dorcis, 226. 

Dorian, 11, 13; in Peloponnesus, 31; migra- 
tions of the, 36 ; three tribes of, 59. 

Doric Hexapolis, 36; order, 136. 

Doris, 5. 

Dorus, 11. 

Draco, laws of, 87. 

Dragaschan, 611. 

Ducas, 584. 

Dukedom of Athens, 579. 



E. 



Ecclesia, the, 103; church, 567. 

Education, Spartan, 63; Athenian, 387; in 

Modern Greece, 634, 635. 
Egestseans, the, deceive the Athenians, 308. 
Egypt, its influence on Greece, 15. 
Eion, Athenian colony at, 236. 
Eisphora, the, 433. 
Slatea, 484. 



Elea founded, 148. 

Eleans, 32 ; attack the Arcadians at Olympiac 
452. 

Eleusinians, condencmed to death by the 3000 
at Athens, 353. 

Eleutheria, festival of, 212. 

Elis, 7, 55; reduced by the Spartans, 408. 

Embassy of the three philosophers to Eome, 
537. 

Embroidery, 28. 

Ennea Hodoi, 237. 

Epameinondas, 430; named Boeotarch, 432; 
liis character, 434 ; embassy to Sparta, 437 ; 
military genius of, 440; defeats the Spar- 
tans at Leuctra, 441 ; invades Laconia, 444; 
establishes the Arcadian confederation, and 
restores the Rlessenians, 445; again invades 
Peloponnessus, 447; saves the Theban 
army, 449; rescties Pelopidas, ib.; naval 
expedition of, 451; la«t invasion of Pelo- 
ponnesus, 453; death of, 454. 

Epariti, 445. 

E.peans, 32. 

Epeirus, 4. 

Ephesus, 111. 

I']phet£e, 87. 

Ephialtes, 182. 

Ephialtes (the friend of Pericles), 240. , 

Ephors, 61 ; power of the, 62. 

Epic poetry, 39. 

Epicharmus, 376. 

Epicnemidian Locrians, 5. 

Epicurean sect, 554. 

Epicurus, 526, 590. 

EpidamniiS, 117, 255. 

Epidaunis, 6. 

Epigoni, 20. 

Epimenides, 89. 

Epipolse, 315. 

Epitadas, 292. 

Epyaxa, 396. 

Equals, Spartan, 410. 

Erechtheum, 250, 370. 

Eretria, capture of, 162. 

Erigena, 595. 

Eteocles, 20. 

Eufephnus, 70. 

Euboea, 7; revolt from Athens, 247; second 
revolt of, 333. 

Euboic scale, 57. 

Eucleides, archon, 355. 

Eucleides of Megara, 554. 

Eucleides of Alexandria, 558. 

Eudamidas, 428. 

Eugenios, St., 587. 

l']umenes, 515. 

Eumenes, King of Pergaraus, 535. 

EumcniiJes of jEschylus, 240. 

Eumenides, cave of the, 372. 

Eumolpida;, 313, 328. 

Eunomus, 475. 

EupairidcE, 18; nature of their government, 
87. 

Euphaes, 70. 

Euphranor, 541. 

Euohrates, surveyed by order of Alexander 
612. 

Enpolis, 382. 

Eupompus, 542. 

Euripides, account of, 381; character as a 
poet, ib. 

Euripides the younger, 546. 



INDEX. 



663 



Eurystheus, 17. 

Eurybiades, 180. 

Eurydice, 521. 

Eurotas, 6. 

Eurvniedon, battle of the, 236. 

Eurymedon, 288, 293; fined, 308. 

Eurystheus, 17. 

Evagoras, 411. 



Fabvier, 616, 623. 

FaUmereyer, 576. 

Farnesian buh, 545. 

Fathers, Greek, 560. 

Few, the, 249. 

Filelfo, 595. 

Finlay, 616. 

Five Hundred, Sacred Band of, 611. 

" Five Thousand," the, 330, 332. 

Flamininus, T. Q., 534. 

"Four Hundred," Athenian Senate or Coun- 
cil of, 93; enlarged to five hundred, 103; 
their judicial power abrogated, 240. 

"Four Hundred," conspiracy of the, 330; put 
down, 333. 

Franchise, Athenian, restricted, 355. 

Freemen, 25. 

G. 

Galatia, 528. 

Galen, 660. 

Gargaphia, fountain of, 207. 

Gauganiela, battle of. See Arbela. 

Gaza, Theodore, 596. 

Gelon of Syracuse, 178, 201. 

Generals, ten Athenian, condemned, 343. 

Gennadios, 582. 

Geoffrey Villehardouin, 579. 

Geomori, 18, 77, 85. 

George of Trebizond, 596. 

Geranean Mountains, 5. 

Gerbel, 602. 

Germanos, of Patraj, 610. 

Gerusia, Spartan, 62; modern, 633, 634. 

Good, the, 82. 

Gordian knot, the, 496. 

Gordon, 616. 

Gorgias, 307, 388, 549. 

Goths, 565, 573. 

Gouras, 623. 

Government in the heroic age, 24. 

Grauicus, battle of the, 495. 

Gvaphe paranSmon, repealed, 330. 

Greece, form of, 2; physical features of, 7 
seq.; climate, 9 seq. ; products, i6.; re- 
duced to a Roman province, 538. 

Greek langiiage, 12, 46 ; history, early, ib. ; 
modern, 636 seq. 

Greeks, character of the, 8; causes which 
united them, 46; disunion of, on the ap- 
proach of Xerxes, 177; celebrate the bat- 
tle of Salamis, 200; expedition of the Ten 
Thousand, 394; retreat of, 399 seq.; arrive 
at the Euxine, 403; at Byzantium, 405. 

Gregorios, Patriarch of Constantinople, 610. 

Griziotes, 632. 

Gyges, 144. 

Gylippus an-jves in Sicily, 317 ; captures the 
fort of LabdaJum, ib. 



Hadrian, 564. 

HaUeck, 615. 

Hamilcar, 201. 

Hannibal, 532. 

Haratch, 601. 

Hamiodius and Aristogeiton, conspiracy oi^ 

99. 
Harmosts, Spartan, 346, 410. 
Harpagus, 148. 
Harpalus, 516. 
Hassan, 584. 
Hastings, 616. 
Hecatseus, 155, 219. 
Hegias, 362. 
Helen, 21. 

Helen, Empress of Trebizond, 588 
Hehffia, 104. 
Helicon, 4. 
Hellanicus, 220. 
Hellauodic£e, 49. 
Hellas, 2, 3, 11. 
Hellen, 11. 
Hellenes, 2, 11, 573. 
Hellenotamise, 227. 
Hellespont, bridge over the, 174. 
Helots, origin of, 33; condition, 60 ; revolt o(, 

237 ; massacre of, 294. 
Hephaestion, 509; marries Drypetis, 611; 

death, ib. 
Heracleidse, return of the, 31. 
Heracleitus, 128. 
Hercules, 17. 
Hermaj, mutilated, 309. 
Hermione, 6. 
Hermippus, 261. 
Hermocrates, 307, 455. 
Hermolaus, 507. 
Herodes Atticus, 564. 
Herodotus, 220; account of his -work, 221 

seq. ; at Thurii, 252. 
Heroes, 16. 

Heroic age, 16 ; manners of, 26, seq. 
Hesiod, 120. 
HetfKras, 261. 
Hetseria, 606. 
Hicetas, 461, 462, 464. 
Hiero of Syracuse, 217. 
Hieromnemon, 47. 
Hill, Dr., 635. 

Hipparchus, 99; assassinated, 100. 
Hipparinus, 461. 

Hippias, 99; expelled from Athens, 101. 
Hippocrates, 295. 
Hippodamus of Miletus, 359. 
Hippolyte, 17. 

Histiffiiis of Miletus, 151; crucified, 157. 
Histoi-v, rise of, 219. 
Holy Places, 578. 

Hoiner, 38; his identity, 40; date, ib. 
Homeric poems, their value, 23; preserva 

tion of, 40; arranged by Peisistratus, 42; 

poetical unity of, 44. 
Horologium, the, 544. 
Howe, S. G., 616. 
Hyllus, 17. 
Hymettus, Mount, 4. 
Hyperbolus, murdered, 329. 
Hypereides, 517, 551. 
Hyphasis, the, 509. 



664 



HISTOKY OF GREECE. 



Iambic verse, 122. 

Ibycus, 218. 

Ictinus, 250, 368. 

Hissus, 357. 

Ilium, or Troy, 21. 

Inaros, revolt of, 241. 

Independence proclaimed, 612. 

lolcos, 11, 19. 

lole, 17. 

Ion, 11. 

Ionia subjugated by the Persians, 159. 

lonians, 11, 12; four tribes of, 85; revolt of 

the, 155; defection from Sparta, 226. 
Ionic migration, 34. 
Ionic order, 186. 
lophon, 546. 
Iphitus, 49. 
Iphicrates, tactics of, 421 ; successes of, 422 ; 

recalled, ib.; defeats the Lacedasmoniaus 

near Abydos, 424 ; indicted, 471. 
Ipsus, battle of, 524. 
Ira, fortress of, 72. 
Isseus, 550. 
Isagoras, 102, 105. 
Ismenias, 448, 449. 
Isocrates, 549. 
Issus, battle of, 497. 
Isthmian games, 49, 50. 
Ithaca, 7. 
Ithome, becomes subject to Sparta, 71; 

Mount, 445. 



J. 



Janizaries, 601 seq. 

Jason, 19. 

Jason of Pherse, 442 ; assassinated, 443. 

Jerusalem, Alexander's reported visit to, 501. 

Jocasta, 20. 

Josephus, 559. 

Jove (Zeus), temple of, at Olympia, 373. 

JuUan, 571. 

Justinian, 573, 574. 

Justiniani, 582. 



K. 



Kalerges, 631. 

Kara Ali, 614. 

Karaiskakes, 624. 

Kings, Grecian, 24. 

Klephtai, 604. 

Klephtic Ballads, 640 seq. 

Knights, Athenian, 92. 

Knights of Aristophanes, extract from, 383. 

Kontogones, 635. 

Kraus, Martin, 603. 



Lacedaemonians. See Sparta. 

Lacedsemonius, 257. 

Lachares, 526. 

Laconia, 6; reduced by the Spartans, 68; 

northern frontier of, 73. 
Laconizers, what, 240. 
Lad^, battle of, 158 



Lsevinus, M. Val., 532. 

Laius, 20. 

Lamachus, 308; advises an attack on Syra- 
cuse, 312 ; slain, 316. 

Lamian war, 517. 

Lampros, 608. 

Lampsacus, 343. 

Laocoon, 545. 

Laonicos Chalcocondylas, 591. 

Lapithse, 18. 

Larissa, 402. 

Lascaris, Constantine, 596. 

Lasus of Hermione, 216. 

Laurium, 9 ; silver mines at, 170. 

Legends, heroic, their value, 22. 

Leleges, 13. 

Leonidas, ISO; his death, 182. ; 

Leonnatus, 518. 

Leontiades, 429. 

Leontines, 307. 

Leontios Pilatos, 595. 

Leopold, 626. 

Leosthenes, 517. 

Leotychides, 169, 213; treachery of, 288. 

Lepanto, ,598. 

Lesbos, revolt of, 326. 

Lesche, at Delphi, 364. 

Leucas, 117. 

Leuctra, battle of, 440. 

Liohas, 327. 

Lingon Mountains, 2. 

Literature, Greek, history of, 119, 215, 876, 
646 ; revival of, in the West, 560 ; modem, 
638 seq. 

Liturgy, 567. 

Locrians, 6; Epizephyrian, 114. 

Locris, 6. 

Long walls, Athenian, 358; rebuilt,' 419. 

Louis, King of Bavaria, 629. 

Louriottes, 615. 

Lucian, 559. ' 

Lycabettus, 357. 

Lycambes, 122. 

Lyceum, 373, 555. 

Lycians, destruction of the, 148. 

Lycomedes, king, 18. 

Lycomedes of Mantinea, 444, 446; defeats 
the Spartans, 447, 448. 

Lycon, 391. 

Lycophron, 81, 566. 

Lycortas, 535. 

Lycurgus (legislator), 57. 

Lycurgus (orator), 551. 

Lydiau monarchy, 144. 

Lygdamis, 98', 220. 

Lyric poetry, 121; occasions of, 122; devel- 
opment of, 215. 

Lysander, appointed NavarcJius, 388; E^ 
toleus, 343; intrusted by Cyrus with his 
satrapy, ib. ; his proceedings after the vic- 
tory of ^gospotami, 346; blockades Pirae- 
us, ib.; takes possession of Athens, 347; 
establishes the Thirty Tyrants, 349; tri- 
umph, ib. ; honors, 352 ; re-enters Athens, 
358 ; his ambitious schemes, 408 ; de- 
spatched to the Hellespont, 412; expedi- 
tion into Boeotia, 416 ; slain, ib. 

Lysias, 252, 549. 

Lysicles, 486. 

Lysicrates, choragic monument of, 544. 

Lysimachus, 490, 515, 527 ; slain, ib. 

Lysippus, 541. 



INDEX. 



665 



M. 



Macedonia, description of, 467. 

Macedonian empire, partition of, 515 ; over- 
tlirow, 5&6. 

Macedonians, their origin, 467. 

Machanidas, 533. 

Macroues, the, 403. 

Magi, 143. 

Magna Griecia, 113 ; causes of the decline of 
its cities, 116. 

Magon, 463. 

Mahmoud, Sultan, 602. 

Malea, 6. 

Malian Gulf, 4. 

Malli, the, 509. 

IVIane, 600. 

Manouses, 635. 

Mantiiiea, 55; battle of, 305; taken by the 
Spartans, 428; rebuilt, 443; battle of, 453; 
third battle of, 533. 

Mantineans, invoke the aid of Sparta against 
the Thebans, 453. 

Marathon, battle of, 164. 

Marcus Aurelius, 564. 

Mardians, subdued by Alexander, 505. 

Mardonius, 160 ; adroit flattery of, 199 ; ne- 
gotiations with the Athenians, 204 ; march- 
es against Athens, 205; retreats, 206; 
death, 210. 

Mardontes, 213, 

Masistius, 206. 

Massagetse, 149. 

Massalia, 116. 

Mausoleum, the, 540, 544. 

Mausolus, 471. 

Mavrocordatos, 606, 612. 

Mavroraichales, Petros, 611. 

Mazseus, 503. 

Medea, 19. 

Medes, the, 143. 

Media, wall of, 400. 

Medon, first Athenian archon, 88. 

Megabazus, 152. 

Megabyzus, 241. 

Megacles, SO, 88, 96, 98. 

Megalopohs founded, 445 ; battle of, 515. 

Megara, 55; revolutions of, 81; long walls 
at, 241; revolts from Athens, 247; com- 
plains of Athens, 258 ; Athenian expedition 
against, 314. 

Megaric sect, 554. 

Megaris, 5. 

Megas Comnenos, 586, 587. 

Meliemet AH, 615. 

Melesander, 273. 

Meletios, 608. 

Meletus, 391. 

Melos, 307. 

Menalcidas, 537. 

Menander, 547. 

Mende, 298. 

Menelaus, 21. 

Jlenon, 401. 

Mesolongi, siege of, 621 seq. 

Mespila, 402. 

Messene, 56. 

Messene founded, 445; taken by Lycortas, 
535. 

Messenia, 7. 

Messenian war, first, 70 ; second, 71 ; third, 
237, 

84 



Messeuians conquered by the Spartans, 71 ' 

subjugated, 73, 
Metelius, 537, 
Methon^, 473, 
Meton, 309, 
Meyer, 616, 

Miletus, 111; fall of, 159; revolt of, 326. 
Miller, 616. 

Milo the Crotoniate, 114. 
Miltiades, 162 ; accusation and death of, 168 
Mindarus, 335; slain, 336. 
Minos, 17, 19. 
Minotaur, 18. 
Minyans, 36. 
Mnaseas, 477. 
Mnasippus, 436. 
Mohammed II., 581. 
Mohammed IV,, 598. 
Morea, 6. 
Morosini, 598. 
Moschos, 597. 
Moschus, 558. 
Mosynceci, 404. 
Mourouzes, 610. 

Muramius, 537 ; his ignorance of art, 538 
Muutaner, 580. 
Slunychia, 353, 359. 
Museum, 357. 
Mycal^, battle of, 213. 
Mycense, 14, 16; rums of, 29, 134. 
Myron, 363. 
Myi-onides, 242. 

Mytilene, naval engagement at, 340. 
My tileneans, revolt of the, 279 ; embassy to 

•Sparta, ib. ; capitulate, 281. 



N. • 

Navarino, battle of, 627. 

Nauclides, 263. 

Nancrary, 85. 

Naupactus, 32 ; taken by the Athenians, 244. 

Navarchia, Spartan, 335. 

Naxos, Spartan expedition against, 154; re- 
volt of, 236; battle of, 465, 

Neapolis, 315, 

Nearchus, voyage of, 510. 

Nemean games, 49, 50. 

Neodamodes, 61. 

Nero, 564. 

Nessus, 17. 

Nicsea, founded by Alexander, 508. 

Nicephorus Bryennius, 589. 

Nicias, 291; reduces Cythera, 294; con 
dudes a peace with Sparta, 299 ; appoint- 
ed commander in Sicily, 308 ; his dilatory 
proceedings there, 314; desponding situa- 
tion of, 318; indecision, 319; sxu'render 
322 ; death, ib. ; character, 323. 

Nicopolis, 564. 

Nicostratus, 284. 

Nico-Tsara, 604. 

Nik^ Apteros, temple of, 366. 

Nimroud, 402. 

Nineveh, 402. 

Nisffius, 461. 

Nobilior, M. Fulv., 534. 

Nobles, 25, 77. 

Normans, 577. 

Notaras, Grand Duke, 582. 

Notaras, Panoutsos, 633. 



686 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



0. 



Oceanus, 28. 

Odeum, 250, 372. 

Odysseus, death of, 623. 

(Edipus, 26. 

(Enophyta, battle of, 244. 

(Eta, Mount, 4. 

Oligarchy, 77. 

Olympia, 7; temple of, plundered by the 

Arcadians, 452. 
Olympiad, first, 10. 
Olympian Zeus, 14. 
Olympias, 487; takes refuge with Alexander 

in Epeirus, 488 j whether concerned in 

Philip's assassination, 489; puts Eurydice 

to death, 521 ; murdered, ib. 
Olympic games, 48. 
Olympus, 4. 

Olynthiac orations of Demosthenes, 476. 
Olynthian confederacy dissolved, 428; its 

extent, 476. 
Olynthus, 428 ; taken by the Spartans, 429. 
Omphale, 17. 
Onatas, 362. 
Onomarchus, 473. 
Opuntian Locrians, 5. 
Oracles, 51. 
Orators, Athenian, demanded by Alexander, 

493 : ten Attic, Alexandrian canon of, 549. 
Oratory, Greek, rise and progress of, 547. 
Orchomenos, 305, 435, 442. 
Orders of architecture, 135. 
Orkan, 601. 
Orlotr, 608. 

Oropus, 449, 536. * 

Ortelius, 603. 
Orthagoras, 79. 
Ortygia, 315. 
Ossa, 4. 

Ostracism, introduced by Cleisthenes, 104. 
Otho, Prince, 629. 
Othryades, 74. 
Othrys, Mount, 4. 
Ottoman Empire, 581. 
Oxyartes, 507. 
Ozohan Mountains, 4. 



Pachas, 599. 

Paches, 281, 284. 

Pactolus, the, 145. 

Pseonians, 469. 

Psestum, 113. 

Painting, origin and progress of, 141 ; devel- 
opment of, 364; Sicyonian school of, 542. 

Paniisus, river, 7. 

Pamphilus, 642. 

Panaretos, 587. 

Panathenffia, 18. 

Pancratium, 49. 

Pangceus, Mount, 237, 471. 

Panhellenion, Journal, 638. 

Pan-Ionic festival, 35. 

Papias, 595. 

Parabasis, comic, 383. 

Parali, 90. 

Paris, 21. 

Parmenio, 500 ; put to death by Alexander, 
606. 



Parnassus, Mount, 4. 

Parnes, Mount, 5. 

Parnon, Mount, 6. 

Paropamisus, 506. 

Parrhasius, 365. 

Parthenice, 116. 

Parthenon, 250, 368, 599. 

Parysatis, queen, 400, 413. 

Pasargadse, 504. 

Passarowitz, peace of, 599. 

Patrse, 564. 

Paul, St., 566. 

Paulus, L. Mm., 536. 

Pausanias, king of Sparta, vanity and treason 
of, 225; recall and impeachment of, 231; 
conviction and death, 232. 

Pausanias (second), 353 ; expedition into 
Boeotia, 416 ; condemned to death, ib. 

Pausanias assassinates Philip, 488. 

Pausanias (historian), 559 

Pedieis, 90. 

Peers, Spartan, 410. 

PeiriBus fortified, 229, 250; re-fortified, 41&; 
surprised by Teleutias, 424. 

Peirithous, 18. 

Peisander, 328, 414. 

Peisistratus, usurpation of, 95; his strata- 
gem, 98 ; death and character of, 99. 

Pelasgia, 12. 

Pelasgians, 13. 

Pelasgicon, the, 267. 

Pelias, 19. 

Pelion, 4. 

Pelopidas, character of, 430 ; gains a victory 
at Tegyra, 436 ; subdues Alexander of 
Pherse, 447 ; imprisoned by Alexander, 
449 ; defeats Alexander, 451 ; slain, ii. 

Peloponnesian confederacy, meeting of, 258 ; 
decides for war against Athens, 260 ; war, 
commencement of, 264 ; invasion of Attica, 
266; Thucydides' character of the war, 
285. 

Peloponnesians, attempt to surprise Peiraeus, 
278. 

Peloponnesus, 6. 

Pelops, 14. 

Peneus, 4. 

Penj-ab, the, 508. 

Pentacosiomedimni, 92. 

Pentathlum, 49. 

Perdiccas, 258. 

Perdiccas (Alexander's general), 514; march* 
es against Ptolemy, 520; assassinated, ib. 

Periauder, 80; his cruelty, ib.; abilities and 
power, ib. ; and Arion, 123. 

Pericles, character of, 239; innovations of, 
ib.\ his administration, 240; reduces Eu- 
bcea, 247; plans for adorning Athens, 250; 
his banishment demanded by the Lace- 
daemonians, 260; pleads for Aspasia, 261; 
persuades a war, 262 ; funeral oration by, 
268 ; accused of peculation, 270 ; death and 
character, 271. 

Pericles, age of, character of art in, 361. 

Perinthus, siege of, 482. 

Periceci, 59. 

Peripatetics, 555. 

Pers^polis, taken and burnt by Alexander 
504. 

Perseus, 17. 

Perseus, 535 ; defeated by the Romans, 636. 

Persian Gates, 504. 



6&t 



Persians, 146; their cruelties towards tlie 
Ionic Greeks, 159; invade Greece, 160; de- 
mand eartli and water (roni tlie Giecian 
states, 161; second invasion of Greece, iO.; 
land at ]Maratlion, 162; third invasion of 
Greece, 174; their number under Xerxes, 
176; destruction of their fleet by a st(jnn, 
184; tlieir progress, 189; attack Delphi, /6.; 
take Athens," 190; retreat of, 199; their 
fleet reassembles at Samos, 203. 

Petrarch, 595. 

Phcedo, Plato's, 391. 

Phalanx, Macedonian, 469. 

Phalaris of Agrigentum, 113. 

Phalerum, 359. 

Pharnabazus assists the Lacedaemonians, 
360; magnanimity of, 414. 

Phayllus, 473, 477. 

Pheidias, 250; accused of peculation, 261; his 
stvle, 363; his statue of the Olympian Jove, 
S73. 

Pheidon, 56. 

Pherecydes of Syros, 219. 

Phigalian marbles, 374. 

Philemon, 547. 

Philhellenes, 616. 

Philip of Macedon, carried to Thebes as a 
hostage, 447 ; education of, 468 ; character, 
t6. ; defeats the Illyrians, 469; assumes 
the crown, ib.; takes Amphipolis and 
Pydna, 470; takes part in the sacred 
war, 473; loses an eye, ib.; reduces Thes- 
saly, 474; expedition into Thrace, ib.; 
takes Olynthus, 476; occupies Delphi, 
479; overruns lUyria, 481; second expedi- 
tion into Thrace, ib.; manifesto to the 
Athenians, 483; compelled to evacuate the 
Chersonese, ib.; expedition into Scythia, 
ib.; elected general in the war against 
Amphissa, 484; seizes Elatea, ib.; defeats 
the Thebans and Athenians at CiiiBronea, 
485; his conduct after the battle, 486; 
clemeucj'' towards Athens, ib.; appointed 
generalissimo ao;ainst Persia, 487; chastises 
the Spartans, z5^.; fiimily feuds, i6.; omens 
of his death, 488; assassinated, ib.; char- 
acter, 489. 

Philip IV., 526. 

Phihp v., 531; assists the Achceans, 532; 
forms an alliance with Hannibal, ib.; de- 
feated by the Romans, 534. 

Philip Arrhidajus, 514. 

Philippi founded, 471. 

Philippics of Demosthenes, 474; first, 475; 
second, 481 ; third, 482. 

Philocrates, 423. 

PhUomehis, 472; slain, 473. 

Pliilopoemen, 533; takes Sparta, 534; taken 
and put to death, 535. 

Philosophy, Greek, origin of, 128; Ionic 
school of, ib.; Eleatic school, 129; Pythag- 
orean sclioo!, ib.; various schools, 554. 

Phocfeans, 148. 

Phocians, 472; defeated by the Thebans, 
473; reduced by Philip, 479. 

PhocJon, 435; character of, 476; his expedi- 
tion to Euboea, 482; to Byzantium, 483; 
his rebuke of Demosthenes, 491; refuses 
Alexander's presents. 494; accusation and 
deatli, 520. . 

Phocis, 5. 

Phoebidas, 435. 



Phoenicians, 14. 

I'honnio, victones of, 278. 

Phuios, the, 227. 

Phrantzes, 582, 585. 

Phratrice, 85. < 

Phrvn(?, 541. 

i'hryniclius, 329, 332. 

I'hrynichus (dramatist), his Fall of Miletut^ 
159; account of, 377. 

Phyllidas, 431. 

Pliylii-basik'us, 86. 

Pinacotheca, 368. 

Pindar, 217; his style, 218; his house spared 
by Alexander, 493. 

Pindus, Mount, 4. 

Pinet, 602. 

Pisa, 7. 

Pissuthnes, 254. 

Pittacus, 127. 

Pittheus, 17. 

Pius 11., 594. 

Plague at Athens, 269, 287. 

Platffia, battle of, 206; surprised, 263; be- 
sieged by the Peloponnesians, 274; sur- 
renders, 275; destroyed, 276; restored by 
the Lacedaemonians, 427; again destroyed 
by the Thebans, 437. 

PlatiBans join the Athenians, 163; massacre 
of the, 276. 

Plato, visits Sicily, 457; sold as a slave, t6.; 
second visit to Sicily, 459; life of, 661^ 
philosophy, 552. 

Pleistoanaxj 247. 

Plethon, Gemistos, 596. 

Plutarch, 559. 

Pnvx, the, 357, 373. 

Pcecile Sloa, the, 367, 557. 

Poetrv, Greek, 39. 

Polemarch, 86. 

Polernon, 554. 

Polus of Aarigentum, 388. 

Poivliius, 536, 558. 

Polybus, 20. 

PolVcharcs, 70. 

Polycletus, 363. 

Polycrates of Samos, 150. 

Polygnotus, 364. 

Polyneices, 20. 

Polysperclion, 520; expedition to Pclopoa 
nesus, 521. 

Pompev tiie Great, 563. 

Porus, 508. 

Potidaja, 258, 273, 428, 470. 

Pratina.s, 377. 

Praxias, 362. 

Praxitas defeats the Corinthians, 420. 

Praxiteles, 540. 

Probuli, 325, 330. 

Prodicus, 548. 

Prodicus of Ceos, 388. 

Pronoea, 629. 

Prose compo.-^ition, origin of, 219. 

Propvlaia, 250, 367. 

Protagoras of Abdera, 388, 548. 

Prvtaneuin, 93. 

Prytanies, 103. 

Prytanis, 77. 

P.sammetichus of Corinth, 81. 

Psellos, Michael, 589. 

Psyttaleia, 194. 

Ptoclioprodromos, 636. 

Ptolemies, patronize learning, 557. 



668 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



Ptolemy, 519 ; defeated at Salamis, 523. 

Ptolemy Cerauuus, 527, 528. 

Ptolemy Pliiladelphus, 527. 

Pydna, 521; battle of, 536. 

Pylagorse, 47. 

Pylus, 288. 

Pyrrhus, 526 ; becomes king of Macedonia, 

ib.; death, 528. 
Pythagoras, 114, 129. 
Pythagorean clubs suppressed, 130. 
Pythia, 51. 
Pythian games, 48. 
Pythodorus, 308. 
Pythonicus, 310. 



B. 



Ealles, 606. 

Rangabes, 638. 

Eeschid Pacha, 622. 

Eeuchlin, 596. 

Rhapsodists, 41. 

Ehegas, 606. 

Ehegium, 116. 

Bhetra of Lycurgus, 58. 

Rhodes, 7 ; siege of, 523 ; colossus at, 545. 

Rhoecus, 139. 

Roger of Sicily, 577. 

Romania, 579. 

Romans direct their attention towards Greece, 
533; declare war against PhiUp V., ib.\ 
proclaim the freedom of Greece, 534 ; de- 
clare war against Perseus, 535 ; spoliation 
of Greek works by, 645. 

BomulusAugustulus, 575. 

Roxana, married by Alexander, 507; mur- 
dered, 522. 

Royalty, abolished in Greece, 76; cause of 
its abolition, ib.\ established in the king- 
dom of Hellas, 629. 

Rumeli Valesi, 599. 

Russia, 626. 



Sacred Band, Theban, 434 ; of five hundred, 
611. 

Sacred war, first, 48 ; second, 472 ; barbarity 
of, 473 ; progress of, 477 ; termination, 479 ; 
results, 480. 

Sages, the seven, 127. 

Salsethus, 280, 281. 

Salamis, 7; acquired by the Athenians, 90; 
battle of, 194. 

Salamis (in Cyprus), battle of, 523. 

Samos, revolt of, 253; subdued, ib.; its im- 
portance to Athens, 326; i-evolutions at, 
331 ; subdued by Lysander, 349. 

Sappho, 125. 

Sardis, 144 ; burnt, 156. 

Saronic Gulf, 5. 

Scanderbeg, 594. 

Scarphea, battle of, 537. 

Scio (Chios), massacre of, 613. 

Scione, 298. 

Scopas (sculptor), 540. 

Scyros, reduction of, 227. 

Scythini, the, 403. 

Sedition, Solon's law respecting, 94. 

Seisachtheia, the, 91. 



Seleucus,520; founds Antioch, 524; succeeds 
to the greater part of the Macedonian em- 
pire, 527; assassinated, 528. 

Selinuntine sculptures, 140. 

Sellasia, battle of, 531. 

Selym, Sultan, 598. 

Selymbra, 118. 

Sestos, reduced by the Athenians, 214. 

Seuthes, 405. 

Sicilian expedition, 311 ; termination of, 321, 

Sicily, dissensions in, 307. 

Sicyon, 7 ; despots in, 79. 

Silver mines, 9. 

Simonides of Amorgos, 122. 

Simonides of Ceos, 215. 

Sinope, 111. 

Sipylus, 14. 

Sisygambis, 498. 

Sitalces, 268, 273, 278. 

Slaves, 25. 

Slavonians, 575, 576. 

Smerdis, 149. 

Smihs, 139. 

Smyrna, 34. 

Social wai-, 471; ill efiects of the, 472; seo 
oud, 532. 

Socrates, at Delium, 296; his opinion of the 
Sicilian expedition, 309; opposes the con- 
demnation of the ten generals, 342; refuses 
to obey the commands of the Thirty, 349; 
summoned before them, 351; sketch of his 
life, 388; his teaching and method, 390; 
how he differed from the Sophists, iJ.; wis- 
dom of, ib. ; unpopularity and indictment 
of, 391; condemned, ib.:, refuses to escape, 
ib. ; death, 392. 

Soffdiana, fortress of, taken, 507. 

Soiiium, 268. 

Solon, 89 ; legislation of, 90 ; supposed inter- 
view with Croesus, 95; laws of, brought 
down into the Agora, 240. 

Sophists, prohibited from teaching, 351; de- 
scription of the, 387. 

Sophocles, at Samos, 254; account of, 379 1 
character as a poet, 381. 

Souliotes, 608. 

St. Sophia, church of, 574. 

Sparta, 12, 55 ; landed property in, 66 ; power 
of, 75; head of the Grecian states, 169; 
earthquake at, 237 ; allies of, in the Pelo- 
ponnesian war, 264; introduction of gold 
and silver at, 410 ; league against, 417 ; con- 
gress at, 437 ; rapid fall of, 443 ; entered by 
Epameiuondas, 453; taken hy Antigonus 
Doson, 531'; taken by Philopoemen, 534. 

Spartan constitution, 59 ; tribes, ib. ; educa- 
tion, 63 ; women, 65 ; monej', 67 ; fleet 
totally defeated at Cyzicus, 336 ; mora de- 
feated by Iphicrates, 421. 

Spartans, make war on Arcadia, 73 ; alone re- 
tain their kings, 76; overthrow the despots, 
79; send an embassy to Cyrus, 148; con- 
duct of, at Thermopylee, 181; selfish con- 
duct of, 188; their apathy, 205; dismiss 
the Athenians, 238; oppose the Athenians 
in Boeotia, 243 ; require the Athenians to 
withdraw the decree against Megara, 262; 
invade Attica, 266 ; reject the advances of 
Alcibiades, 303 ; send an embassy to Ath- 
ens, ib. ; invade Argos, 305 ; force the Ar- 
gives to an alHance, 306; establish them- 
selves at Decelea, 318; invade Ehs, 408; 



INDEX. 



669 



duration of their supremacy, ib. ; assist the 
Phocians against the Thebans, 416; de- 
feated at Haliartus, ib. ; iose their colonies, 
418; proclaim the independence of the 
Boeotian cities, 427 ; garrison Orchomenus 
and Thespiaj, ib. ; assist Amyntas against 
the Olynthians, 428; lieight of their power, 
430; expelled from Bceotia, 436; attack 
Corcyra, ib. ; solicit the aid of the Atajav- 
ans, 446 ; defeat the Arcadians, 447 ; send 
an embassy to Persia, 448 ; excluded from 
the Amphictyonic Council, 479 ; attempt to 
throw ofF tlie Macedonian yoke, 515 ; their 
dechne and degradation, 530; caU in the 
Eomans, 537. 

Speusippi;s, 554. 

Sphacteria, blockaded, 290; captured, 292. 

Sphinx, 20. 

Sphodrias, 433. 

Sporades, 7. 

Statira, 498, 510; murdered by Koxana, 515. 

Statuary, 28; progress of, 139; schools of, 
140, 362, 539. 

Stesichorus, 124. 

Sthenelaidas, 260. 

Stoics, 554. 

Strabo, 559. 

Strategi, Athenian, 104. 

Stratonice, 525. 

Sulpicius, 563. 

Sunium, 4 ; fortified, 325. 

Susa, treasures at, 503. 

Susarion, 376. 

Sybaris, its luxury, 113; destroyed, 114. 

Sybarites, 251. 

Sybota, naval battle off, 257. 

Svennesis, 396. 

Sylla, 562. 

Synoikia, 18. 

Syntaxis, the, 433. 

Syracusans, their vigorous defence, 315. 

Syracuse, 112; description of, 315; naval 
battle at, 318; engagement in the Great 
Harbor of, 320 ; constitution of, 465. 
' ■ Itia, 64, 411. 



T. 



" Table Companions," the, 398. 

Tsenarum, 6. 

Tantalus, 14. 

Tanagra, battle of, 243. 

Taochi, the, 403. 

Tarentum, 116. 

Taygetus, Jlount, 6. 

Tearless battle, the, 447. 

Tegea, 55 ; reduced by the Spartans, 74. 

Teleclus, 70. 

Teleutias, 423, 424. 

Temenus, 56. 

Tempe, 4; pass of, 178. 

Temples, Greek, description of, 134; of Diana 

at Ephesus, 137; of Juno at Samos, 138; 

of Delphi, ib. ; of the Olympian Zeus, ib. ; 

at Psestum, ib. ; at Selinus, ib. ; in ^giua, 

139. 
' Ten Thousand," expedition and retreat of 

the, 393 seq, 
" Ten Thousand," the Arcadian, 445. 
Teos, revolt of, 326. 
Terillus, 201. 



Terpander, 121. 

Tetralogies, 377. 

Thais, 504. 

Thales of Miletus, 128. 

Thasos, reduced, 237. 

Theagenes of Megara, 81. 

Thebans, surprise Platsea, 263; expel King 
Agesilaus from Aulis, 412 ; invade Phocis, 
"^16; form an aUiance with Athens, ib.; 
forced into the LacedEemonian alliance, 
429; rise of their ascendency, 442; defeat- 
ed by Alexander of Pherse, 449; fit out a 
fleet, 450 ; their proceedings at Tegea, 452 ; 
allv themselves witli the Athenians against 
Philip, 485 ; humbled by Philip, 486 ; rise 
against the Blacedonians, 493. 

Thebes, Seven against, 20. 

Thebes, 20 ; reduced by Pausanias, 212 ; lib- 
erated from the Spartans, 432; declared 
head of Greece by the Persians, 448 ; de- 
stroyed, 493 ; restored by Cassander, 522. 

Themistocles, 162; proposes a fleet, 170; 
his character, ib.; his advice to fight at 
Salamis, 191; his stratagem to bring on an 
engagement, 193; his message to Xerxes, 
199; his rapacity, ib.; rewarded by the 
Spartans, 201; his views, 228 seq.; goes 
ambassador to Sparta, 229 ; corruption of, 
230; ostracized, 231; flight, 232; recep- 
tion in Persia, 233 ; death, ib. ; tomb, 234. 

Theocritus, 558, 566. 

Theodoras of Samos, 139. 

Theognis, 81. 

Theophilus Palseologos, 584. 

Theopompus, 71. 

Theramenes, 332, 347, 348 ; his death, 350. 

Thei-mopylse, 4; pass of, 179; battle of, 181. 

Theron of Agrigentum, 201. 

Thespis, 215, 377. 

Theseum, the, 366. 

Theseus, 17, 84 ; bones of, brought to Athens, 
227. 

Thessalians, 31. 

Thessaly, 4 ; submits to Xerxes, 179. 

Thesmothetse, 86. 

Thessalus, 313. 

Thetes, 26, 92, 230. 

Thimbron, 406, 411; defeat and death, 423. 

Thirty years' truce, 247, 252. 

Thirty Tyrants at Athens, 349 ; proscription 
of the, 350; defeated by Thrasybulus, 362; 
deposed by the Spartans, 354. 

Thrasybulus of Miletus, 80. 

Thrasybulus, 351; takes Phyl^, 352; seizes 
Peirffius, 353; defeats the Thirty, ib.; de- 
feated by Pausanias, 354; marches into 
Athens, ib. ; commands an Athenian fleet, 
423 ; restores the Athenian power in the 
Hellespont, ib. ; slain, ib. 

Thrasyllus, 331. 

ThrasymeUdas, 288. 

ThucvdideS (statesman), 248; ostracized, 
250^. 

Thucydides (the historian), in Thrace, 297; 
banished, ib. ; account of, 385 ; his history, 
ib. 

Thurii, 221, 251. 

Thyrea, reduced, 294. 

Tigranes, 213. 

Timagenidas, 212. 

Timocrates, 415. 

Timolaus, 417. 



670 



HISTOKT OF GREECE. 



Timoleon, character of, 461; expedition to 
Sicily, 462; defeats the Carthaginians, 
464; becomes a Syracusan citizen, 465. 

Timotlieus, 433; his success on tlie western 
coasts of Thrace, 435 ; attacks Zacyutlius, 
436; successful naval expedition of, 450; 
indicted and condemned, 471. 

Tiribazus, 402, 422. 

Tiryns, remains of, 28, 134. 

Tissaphernes, 326 seq., 336, 394, 401 ; attacks 
the Ionian cities, 411; beheaded, 413. 

Tithraustes, 413, 415. 

Tolmides, 244, 246. 

Torone, 298. 

Tragedy, Greek, origin of, 376. 

Trapezus, 404. 

" Treasury " of Atreus, 134. 

Trebizond, 586. 

Tricoupes, 609. 

Trilogies, 377. 

Triparadisus, treaty of, 520. 

Triphylian cities, 443, 448. 

Tripolitza, 611. 

TrUtys, 85. 

Troezen, 6. 

Trojan expedition, 20. 

Trov captured, 22. 

Tsumados, 641. 

Turks, 581. 

Tych^, 315. 

Tvniphrestus, 4. 

Tynint, value of tlie term, 78. 

Tyre, besieged by Alexander, 499. 

Tyrtseus, 72, 123. 

Tzinos, 632. 



U. 



Ulysses, 21. 
XJxiaus, the, 504. 



Valentinian and Valens, 573. 
Venetians, 597. 
Venus de' Medici, 545. 



W. 
Walter de Brienne, 679. 



Wellington, 627, 628. 
William de Champlitte, 579. 
Wolf, Homeric theory of, 42. 
Writing, use of, 43. 



X. 

Xanthian marbles, 140. 

Xanthippus, 168; recovers the Thracian 

Chersonese, 214. 
Xenocrates, 654. 
Xenophanes, 129. 
Xenophon, account of, 386; his works, iJ., 

accompanies Cyrus, 395; his dream, 401; 

sainted General of the Ten Thousand, ib.; 

returns to Athens, 406; joins Agesilaus, 

417. 
Xerxes, character of, 173; subdues Egypt, 

ib.; chastises the Hellespont, 174; marches 

towards Greece, ib.; reviews his troops, 

175; crosses the Hellespont, ib.; number of 

his host, ib. ; takes Athens, 191 ; his alarm 

and retreat, 198. 
Xuthus, 11. 



Ypselantes, Alexander, 610. 
Ypselantes, Demetrius, 612, 628. 
Ypselantes, 606. 



Zacharias, 604. 

Zacynthus, 7. 

Zaleucus, laws of, 115; suicide, ib. 

Zampelios, 605. 

Zea, 359. 

Zelea, 495. 

Zeno, 556. 

Zeuyilce,, 92. 

Zeus Ekulherios, 212. 

Zeuxis, 365. 

Zinkeisen, 576. 

Zonaras, 566. 

Zoroaster, 143. 

Zosimus, 588. 

Zosimades, 606. 

Zygomala, 603. 



IHE ENS'. 



t/ 



83 8 



kl) 



